


The Gang

by bananagoose



Category: Scooby Doo - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2018-12-29 02:26:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 24,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12072657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananagoose/pseuds/bananagoose
Summary: Four outcasts and a dog combine forces when a strange case threatens their town.





	1. Chapter 1

Daphne roared through the cluster of girls in purple uniforms charging towards her. She darted through and somehow made it so that all of the girls facing her ended up in a tangle, with her escaping on the other end. Coach McKinley watched with her mouth open, dreaming of the state trophy that was just three short games from sitting in the front hall of the school. Daphne grasped her lacrosse stick and flung it to Georgia, who then lobbed it into the goal. That’s how it always was; Daphne sets it up, Georgia knocks it down.

“Hell yeah!” Daphne shouted, raising her arms in victory. She and Georgia looked at each other proudly as a roar boomed from the crowd.

Daphne ran out the clock until the game ended, giving West Central High their ninth consecutive win. Daphne’s teammates swarmed around her and Georgia. Daphne giggled and congratulated everyone, feeling sheepish for all the attention. The girls started chanting, but it wasn’t Daphne’s name. She looked up and saw Georgia sitting on top of two girls’ shoulders, high fiving everybody and smiling.

Daphne felt foolish. She slipped away and grabbed her duffel bag at the bottom of the bleachers.

“Hey, great game, Daphne!” Coach McKinley ran up and patted her shoulder.

“Thanks.” Daphne replied tersely, not trying to conceal her feelings. The coach glanced over at her students, who were still cheering for Georgia.

“Hey, I know she gets lots of the praise, and I’m sorry. It’s always just been the people who make the shots, but you have real talent, Daph. You’re thinking about continuing into college, right?”

“I can’t talk about that right now, coach” Daphne said, pulling out her phone and typing something into it. “See you tomorrow,” she said, marching off angrily behind the bleachers.

Daphne plopped down onto the curb. She saw all her friends leaving with their parents. Lots of them had personalized stadium seats or scarves with the school colors. Lots of the parents were hugging their kids, or congratulating them. Georgia’s mom said goodbye to Daphne and offered her a ride home, like always. And like always, Daphne politely declined. Daphne waived goodbye to her teammates and their families one by one, until she was the last teammate left.

Soon, a black Porsche rolled up next to the curb, and a man in a black suit carried Daphne’s equipment for her into the trunk.

Daphne got into the backseat and kicked off her cleats.

“How was the game, ma’am?” the driver asked her.

“It was good. We won.” Daphne said, a little eager to tell someone about her victory.

“Excellent.” The driver responded.

Neither of them spoke again.

Daphne smiled at the driver who took her duffel bag to her from the trunk, and then she went up to her room. She didn’t see another person on her way there.

Daphne sat down on her bed and checked her phone. 3 missed calls. She listened to a message left after the third call.

“Hey Daph, its Shaggy. Um, wanna hang out? I don’t want to be home right now. We can get burgers and I can bring Scoob. He’s doing a lot better. Whatever’s good for you.”

“Daphne ended the message and typed into her phone. ‘Pick me up in 10.’ She wrote.

“Heading over now” he replied.

Daphne changed out of her uniform and waited for the conspicuous grey van to drive up to the front. Daphne waited on the porch, and didn’t see another person before she left.


	2. Chapter 2

Daphne had only been playing lacrosse for two years. Before that it was polo, and before that it was fencing, and before that it was dressage. She didn’t find something she liked until enough violence was involved.

Her parents were glad to find something that stuck, and told her that extra curriculars were the key to a strong college application. She knew her fathers’ connections at Cornell were strong enough that lacrosse wouldn’t make a difference, but she was happy that they were happy.

They went to her first game, but after a few minutes of bonking, slamming, and cursing, they decided it wasn’t their type of entertaining. It took Daphne half of the season of searching for her parents faces in the bleachers to realize they stopped coming.

Daphne climbed into the front seat of Shaggy’s van. She always thought it could use a paint job, maybe something kind of psychedelic to match his personality, but she knew he would never get around to it.

“Hey.” She said quietly. “is everything okay?”

“Uh.. yeah.” Shaggy told her. “I mean- let’s talk about it when we stop somewhere.”

Daphne looked behind her and saw Scoob wandering around the middle seats. She reached her hand out to him. He smelled it briefly, then ignored it.

“Hey, he’s making progress,” Daphne said to Shaggy as she sat back up.

“yeah, he is. I’m proud of him.” Shaggy said with a smile.

Daphne smiled too.

“So, do you want to give me a play-by-play of the game tonight?” Shaggy asked.

Daphne jumped into action, describing every score and every move, even using technical terms that Shaggy didn’t understand, not like he cared. He knew it was important for Daphne to find someone to talk to about what she’s passionate about, so he always kept up with her hobbies.

“…but of course, they all cheered for Georgia for making the final shot. I mean, she’s a great person and I love her, like, she’s my closest friend on the team, but I just want recognition of all the work I put into making this team so strong!”

Daphne had been going on about the game for a while now. Shaggy had parked at Marcus's, a burger joint overlooking the city. That’s where they always went when they wanted to hang out. They got a burger and sat on the benches outside, looking at all of the city lights on the cliffside.

“I’m sorry, Daph.” Shaggy said. He occasionally chimed in to let her know he was listening.

“It’s fine,” she said with a long sigh, taking a sip of her milkshake.

Scoob sat motionless next to Shaggy while Shaggy scratched his ear. Daphne had just now noticed that he was actually letting Shaggy touch him.

“Wow, you’ve really made some progress.” She said, marveling at Scooby’s’ calmness.

“Yeah, I’m making him my new project.” Shaggy said with a laugh.

“What is his full name again?” Daphne asked, taking a bite of her burger.

“Uhh… I think it’s ‘Scooby-Doo’,” He told her.

“That’s such a weird name,” she laughed. “Why don’t you change it?"

“It’s what was on his collar. I want to honor his previous owner.” Shaggy said.

It had been about a month since Shaggy got to pick out a rescue dog for his seventeenth birthday. His parents were fully willing to buy a purebred, but Shaggy being the boy he was chose a rescue from the animal shelter. At first, the dog would try to bite anything that came near it, but Shaggy was patient, and was slowly making progress.

“So, do you want to tell me what’s up?” Daphne finally asked.

Shaggy scrunched up uncomfortably. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a joint, as Daphne predicted would happen. It often did when conversations like this came up.

Shaggy stood up, leaving Scooby tied to a pole, and gestured for Daphne to join him at the picnic table. He lit his joint and held it in his mouth

Shaggy lifted up the sleeves of his baggy sweatshirt and showed Daphne his arms.

Daphne didn’t flinch, but she looked up at Shaggy sadly.

“It all just kind of happened. Out of nowhere.” He faltered.

Daphne softly examined his arms, her pale, white fingers contrasting with his bruised, freckled skin.

“Why don’t you tell anyone?” She asked him cautiously.

Shaggy whipped his arms away and quickly took another puff of smoke, then hid his arms under the table.

“Cause they’re my life line.” He shrugged. “I’m not going to go anywhere without their money.” He said.

“That’s really unhealthy.” Daphne said.

Shaggy looked up at her and almost pointed out how hypocritical it was for Daphne Blake, of all people, to lecture him on abusive parents and money.

But he didn’t. He didn’t have enough energy for the argument, so he just nodded and finished his blunt. He didn’t even know why he even told her about it anymore.

At the surface level, he figured it was a symbiotic relationship. She gets to vent and have someone interested in her life, even if it should be her parents fulfilling that role, and he gets compassion, even if she tries to solve all of his problems.

Shaggy was always too lazy to ever think about their relationship any deeper than the surface level, so whatever the case, what they had was good enough for him.


	3. Chapter 3

“Are you sure you want to go home? You could stay the night.” Daphne told Shaggy as she unbuckled her seatbelt.

“No, no, its fine. I think I’ll just lay low for the next few days,” he responded doubtfully.

Daphne wanted him to stay in their guestroom, but she knew that both his parents and hers would assume the worst, which would only lead to more trouble. So she said goodnight and walked into her quiet, dark house.

Shaggy drove home slowly. It was only a block down, but the houses were so big that the distance was twice as long as normal. He watched as the roof of Daphne’s’ house got more and more covered by the thick fog that often hung in the early morning air. Shaggy guessed it was probably 4 or 5 am.

He circled around his house to the back, and parked next to his old playhouse hidden by the trees. Two tire paths were worn into the grass, they were the only flaw in the perfectly manicured lawn. The sprinklers were on, so he tiptoed around the edge of the grass, letting Scooby drink the sprinkler water a bit. Shaggy tied Scooby back up to his dog house, as his parents made the dog sleep outside. Shaggy pet Scoob briefly and said goodnight. He snuck in the house rather quietly, but it was so big that not much sneaking was required to get away with late night burger runs.

Even the smell of his house had a Pavlovian effect on him, and he was already shaking and shivering with fear. He slinked past his parents’ room, whose door was open just wide enough for Shaggy to risk getting caught. After a moment of holding his breath, nothing had moved, so he continued on to his room.

At this point, with the weed, the adrenaline, and the lack of sleep, Shaggy was seeing blurry. When he got to his room, he slumped into bed without even taking his shoes off.

 

On the other side of town, an alarm beeped for 4:45 am. Fred Jones hopped out of bed, slightly groggy, but still far too eager for waking up as early as he had. He took a quick shower, brushed his teeth, and put on the clothes he had laid out for himself the night before.

Fred Jones accomplished everything with an astonishing efficiency. If something was asked of him, it would be started and finished within the hour. All of his teachers loved him, because they could use him as an example of academic standards. The students, however, hated him for the same exact reason.

Fred made himself breakfast and, as always, debated whether or not to accent his outfit with an ascot. He put it on, smiled in the mirror, then tore it off angrily, just like every day.

He went downstairs and noticed a note from his mother.

“Can you fix the printer? Love you.”

Fred debated whether or not he would have time to fix the printer before school. He headed over, removed the piece of paper causing the jam, and had the printer running again in ten seconds.

“Classic mom,” he told himself.

Fred made himself eggs and toast, just like every morning, prepared the exact same way. Scrambled eggs, two slices of whole wheat toast, one with jam and one with butter.

He was very methodical in his habits, always trying to find new ways to make his processes more efficient. Today, though, he made himself his normal breakfast the normal way, and left at his normal time of 5:30am.

“Seventeen minutes?” he told himself in disbelief. “That’s a load of bull, I must’ve started it early or something.” Fred muttered to himself as he examined his walk time to school. Seventeen minutes was a high for him, the ultimate high being 23 minutes from when he thought he left his phone at home, but hadn’t. Tracking details was a hobby of Fred’s, so he naturally recorded his time in a notebook he kept in his pocket.

As he walked up the steps talking to himself about his seventeen minutes, some students exchanged looks in reaction to him. Fred didn’t care. He didn’t know about it, either, but if he had, he wouldn’t have cared.

It was time for business club to begin. Every day there were early morning clubs that began an hour earlier than normal classes, usually filled with overachieving students. By this time in the school year, most students in the class regretted their decision of cheating themselves out of sleep, and the only student who seemed to still enjoy the early morning class was Fred. Even the teacher was yawning that day.

Fred took notes on everything, asked questions, and was generally annoying to most students.

The bell rang for the first real class to begin, and Fred walked out on the classroom full of energy, with all other children slowly exiting behind him.

Fred sat down in first period English, looking around the classroom and waving to other students. A cloud of puffy orange hair glided into his view. Daphne walked in to the classroom and sat at the desk next to Fred. She rested her head in her hand and rubbed her eyes.

“Hey, Daphne!” Fred greeted enthusiastically.

Like most other students, Daphne was annoyed with his constant excited optimism. However, unlike most students, she was kind enough to engage.

“Hi, Fred.” She mumbled.

“Are you doing okay?” Fred asked hesitantly.

“I’m so awesome.” Daphne responded lethargically.

Fred paused, then laughed, “You’re being sarcastic aren’t you?”

Daphne didn’t respond, and instead just looked in his direction in impatient disbelief.

“You should come to engineering club at lunch, there’s a girl in there who has a great sense of humor, really similar to yours.” Fred told her optimistically.

“Thanks, I’ll think about it.” Daphne lied.

Fred looked forward with a side smile on his face, patting himself on the back for another successful interaction.

Daphne got out her notebook and closed her eyes for a few moments before the bell rang.


	4. Chapter 4

It was lunch time, and Fred was headed to engineering club. Even Fred could admit that at this point, engineering club was just a generous name for him eating lunch and explaining his many inventions to his friend, Velma, who rarely did anything related to engineering other than listen. The teacher who was supposed to be in charge of the club didn’t even show up anymore.

“Man, our numbers are dwindling...” Fred said, scanning the room with such ferocity that you’d think he was trying to get more people to show up out of pure concentrated staring.

Velma, as always, sat glued to her phone. Shoulders hunched over and fingers tapping out messages. She was texting all of her cheerleader friends, Fred could only assume.

Velma and Fred lived right next door to each other growing up, and Velma made a point to show up to engineering club at lunch with him. She didn’t stay connected with him very well anymore, and this was her way of maintaining their friendship.

 “…which can easily be controlled by this pulley on the side…” Fred told Velma as he flipped though pages and pages of plans for complicated inventions.

“Great!” Velma said, not looking up from her phone. Fred rarely worried about her rudeness towards him, he knew it was just how Velma worked.

Fred paused for a moment, closed his notebook, and sat on top of a table a few feet away from Velma. “I invited that girl Daphne to the club today so she could meet you,” Fred told her.

Velma paused for a moment, her eyes flickered as she processed what Fred told her.

Velma was very much intimidated by Daphne. It’s not like Daphne has much social standing at the school, but her name sure does. Blake Field, Blake gymnasium, Blake library, the list goes on. Seeing Daphne in the flesh knocks the name down a few pegs, though. When you think ‘Blake’ you think of her jet-setting parents, her successful sisters, and their lavish mansion. When you think ‘Daphne’ you think of a social burnout, a wrathful athlete, and her gangly, pot-smoking henchman who is always two steps behind her. She figured that even though Daphne may not be a real friend, the power gained from pretending would be worth it, and she figured Fred may have felt the same way and that’s why he had been reaching out to Daphne for so long.

Fred had not felt the same way. He just liked looking at Daphne’s hair and appreciated her patience with him.

Velma thought all of this instead of responding to Fred. She was always astute, but quiet enough about it that you’d never know.

All of this thought process elapsed about three seconds of real time, and Fred continued to speak. “I figured maybe she could be a nice break from the other people you hang out with.”

At this moment Velma realized Fred was framing this as a way to change Velma, not as a power play like she originally conjectured. Thoughtlessly, she engaged.

“Why would I need a break from my other friends?” Velma asked.

She had emphasized ‘other’ a bit too deeply for Fred’s liking, and it felt extremely isolating.

“I just thought that… you would want to be friends with some different kinds of people…” Fred equivocated.

“I know that cheerleaders and jocks may not be your thing, but they’re my friends. I’m one of them.” Velma said, smoothing out her cheerleading uniform as she spoke.

“I’m sorry, Velma.”

“It’s Vee” she corrected viciously.

Velma and Fred had grown apart quite a bit since childhood. The two went from spending every day together to Fred hanging around Velma’s popular friends, to Velma getting home late and not even looking up at Fred in the hallway when they passed. Velma suddenly had cheer practice and parties to go to, and Fred suddenly wasn’t welcome anymore.

Even though they no longer had anything in common, Velma remained his friend in the smallest, least inconveniencing way possible. Fred had the capacity to figure that out, but he just didn’t want to.

The two waited for a few more minutes, but then decided that Daphne would not be coming, and continued to each lunch by themselves.

Fred looked out the window of the classroom to the football field, wondering where Daphne was.

 

Daphne and Shaggy were somewhere else entirely.

The two had left class the second it got out for lunch and went to smoke under the bleachers next to the field.

“How am I this awake?” Daphne said.

“Don’t worry, about it, just smoke,” Shaggy told her, placing the blunt in her mouth.

Daphne paused for a moment while she took a puff. “Jesus, we are such stereotypes.” She said, shaking her head and passing the blunt to Shaggy.

“Two rich kids smoking under the bleachers instead of handling their problems head on?” Shaggy asked. The two looked at each other seriously, then erupted into laughter.

They were soon interrupted by the sound of the pe teacher, Mr. Flaherty, yelling at them to come out.

“Shit, not again. I’ll get kicked off the team if I get caught,” Daphne said, picking up her backpack and weighing her options for escape.

“It’s fine, I’ll take the hit,” Shaggy said, already standing up and heading for certain death.

Daphne looked and Shaggy and said thanks, then bolted in the opposite direction, waving away the smoke as she ran.

Shaggy sighed and finished off his joint, then walked out with his hands up in the air, jokingly.

“Rogers…” Mr. Flaherty said.

“Flaherty…” Shaggy impersonated.

“You aren’t allowed to make jokes in this position, young man. Third time this semester, caught abusing drugs on campus.

‘Actually, it’s been a lot more than that’ Shaggy wanted to say. The punishment would far outweigh the humor in that instance, though, so he stayed quiet.

Mr. Flaherty began on a long, boring talk about ‘substance abuse’ and ‘responsibility’, but Shaggy stood and nodded thoughtfully.

Daphne made it to the side door of the school and peered out the window to see just how bad it was for Shaggy.

Just as Mr. Flaherty was beginning to decide just how much detention Shaggy would have, a loud siren blared across the school.

The speakers for morning announcements had a hellish alarm ring out of it. Even from the field, it was deafening.

“WE ARE UNDER A LOCKDOWN. PLEASE REPORT TO THE NEAREST CLASSROOM AND LOCK THE DOOR.” An authoritative, deep voice blared over the siren.

Kids began scattering around Daphne, but she opened the door, waving her arms to get Shaggy’s attention.

 Shaggy looked at Daphne, glanced nervously at Mr. Flaherty, then took off running towards the school. Mr. Flaherty considered running after him, but began to corral his football players who were practicing on the field.

Shaggy ran inside the school and saw Daphne waiting for him.

“What the fuck is going on!” He asked between gasps for air.

“I don’t know, I just texted my sister and she said she will get the information as soon as she can. Come on!” Daphne yelled. The two ran into the closest classroom and slammed the door closed behind them. They sat pressed against the door as Shaggy covered his ears and yelled “I’M WAY TOO HIGH FOR THIS SHIT!”

Just as fast as it came, the alarm stopped, and an announcement came over the speaker.

The sweet and kind voice of the office secretary hastily delivered a speech. “Ladies and gentlemen of West Central High, we are in lockdown until further notice. There is a situation downtown, and there is a suspect wanted for… a crime that we are not yet able to disclose… Please wait patiently and listen to your teacher for further instruction.”

The speaker sounded off, and Daphne and Shaggy were left in silence.

The two looked around the classroom. There wasn’t a teacher. They actually ran into a room that was mostly empty. Only in this moment of silence did Daphne notice the girl huddling under the table right in front of them. She was squatted on the floor, with her arms wrapped neatly around her shins. She looked at Shaggy and Daphne nervously.

Finally, a tall, blonde boy stood up behind her and broke the silence.

“Daphne! You showed up!”


	5. Chapter 5

Daphne stood up quickly, Shaggy shortly following her.

“…Hey” Daphne said awkwardly, eyeing both Fred and the girl who was under the table.

Fred wasted no time before he introduced Daphne and Velma to each other.

Velma smiled coolly at Daphne, giving a warm impression.

Daphne was hesitant, as she never really enjoyed the presence of the popular kids, especially Vee. She had only heard rumors about her crazy parties and her track record of boyfriends. In a different world, Daphne would almost be impressed. But instead, she was cautious and wary, worrying that if she got to close she would catch the disease that made Vee the way she was. 

“So does anybody know what this whole lockdown thing is about?” Shaggy asked.

“Well they do a lock down drill once every quarter…” Fred began as he got his notebook from his pocket. “But we already had one three weeks ago.”

“They wouldn’t make up a situation downtown for a drill, this is real.” Velma corrected. Everyone in the room was rather surprised to hear Velma say something so logical. She was never really known for being smart. Even though she was.

Shaggy noticed Daphne checking her phone. “What’s up?” He asked.

“I texted Delilah and I’m waiting for a response.” Daphne responded.

Fred looked at Daphne. “Who is-”

“Delilah Blake, former Marine, now she’s a police officer for the city.” Velma answered.

A moment passed. “Why do you know that?” Daphne asked, her words dripping suspicion. Velma worried it was showing a bit too much of her intelligence and decided to hold back.

“I mean I just like hear all the football players talk about her...” Velma lied.

“Well in any case, she will talk to you as soon as she can. She’s probably on the job right now and can’t access her phone. Why don’t you just take it easy.” Shaggy suggested.

“Yeah, but it was a situation downtown. They wouldn’t do a lockdown over just anything. What if-”

“We don’t know anything.” Shaggy told her.

Daphne felt defeated. She soon allowed herself to relax and visit with the people she was stuck in a room with.

She soon learned that Fred is the junior class president, and is involved in eight clubs, sports, and extracurriculars. Fred was very eager to share that information. She also discovered that Vee was nicer than she thought, but just as dumb as Daphne thought she was, but for some reason it felt forced. Every so often she would say something so clever or so observant, then counter with something idiotic to negate what she just said. Daphne was pretty high, and pretty preoccupied with waiting for her sister’s response, so she didn’t dwell on it for too long.

The four sat in a small circle near the door, waiting for the lockdown to be lifted. They got somewhat well acquainted, and seemed to get along with each other. Daphne sensed Shaggy’s stocky, fearful demeanor melting into relaxed enjoyment as he got to know Vee and Fred. But to Daphne’s credit, it helped that he had her there, too.

It took about a half hour for Daphne’s sister Delilah to respond. Daphne had been glued to her phone, waiting for a response.  She read the text quickly, then sprung up and called her sister with a worried look on her face.

“Delilah! Are you okay?” Daphne shouted.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, just shaken up.” Her sister said.

“Do you have any more information? Who was it?” Daphne asked.

The three in the classroom looked up fearfully as Daphne waited for the answer.

“I’m not allowed to disclose the information at this time.” Delilah told her in a cold, authoritative voice.

Daphne’s eyes welled with tears in fear of the worst. “Please don’t let it be who I think it is.”

A moment passed. The call ended. Daphne began to cry. Shaggy stood up and surrounded her in his arms.

“What happened?” Fred asked as he and Velma, too stood up. His voice concerned and confused.

“She didn’t tell me what happened, but I already know.” Daphne said, her voice bitter with rage.

“What?” Velma urged, aching for new information to chew on.

Daphne waited a second, then showed them the text she had received before the phone call.

Shaggy read it aloud. “Daphne, I need you to stay safe. There has been an abduction downtown and we think more will come. Keep in touch. I’ll give you more information as it comes up.”

“There’s only one Blake who works downtown.” Daphne said. “Mayor Blake-Carrington, my sister.”


	6. Chapter 6

At 5 o’ clock, the school was required to open up the doors and let all of the students go home. Fred’s parents greeted him anxiously, Velma went home with all of her cheerleader friends, and Shaggy took Daphne home in his van.

Daphne had confirmed that it was her sister Dawn Blake-Carrington who was abducted. Delilah had told her.

When she got home, her parents were there to greet her. She hadn’t seen either of them in weeks. They had tans, and her mom had a new jade broach.

Her mother was waiting on the porch when Shaggy dropped her off. She took Daphne into her arms. Normally Daphne was apprehensive when her mom showed her physical affection, but she needed it.

Shaggy dropped her off and left without even waving to her parents.

Daphne was taken to her room, and had police officers guarding the house at every entrance.

Daphne didn’t even know how to contemplate what had happened. She was so afraid and so angry and felt so alone. Everything felt like a blur. She policemen were explaining all of the curfew rules and surveillance equipment, but all she could think of was her sister, alone and afraid. Everything in front of her was just haze.

Dawn was in her thirties, and had a hippie artist husband who was backpacking in the Swiss Alps. She looked like Daphne in a lot of ways, with brown hair and less freckles. Daphne had always been partial to Dawn, as Delilah was often very cold, and Daisy was too close to her in age that they always butted heads. Daphne had no idea why anyone would target Dawn. She didn’t make any big political statements, she wasn’t staunchly in support or against anything. She was just a mayor.

Her parents were sitting with the policemen for hours, talking about waiting for a ransom note, or clues, or anything. They sent Daphne upstairs, with two policemen outside of her room.

Daphne sat in her room for a few minutes before she finally thought to turn her phone on.

After a few minutes, texts from friends she barely ever talked to came pouring in: Girls from lacrosse, Her lab partner, Fred.

At the bottom of her notifications, she found a text from the only person who mattered.

“Turn on the news.” It said under Shaggy’s name.

Daphne watched as it cycled through the few pieces of information that were disclosed to the public. There was a hellish picture of the scene of the crime. The mayor’s office covered in blood with papers and furniture scattered everywhere. A note was neatly placed on the desk, right in front of Dawn’s name plate.

The news lady read aloud an excerpt from the note. “The Blakes have far too much control. We must see them give it back to the public, or there will be no Blakes left.”

That was all the news was allowed to say, but Daphne was sure there was more. She considered asking her parents for more information, but she knew how that would end.

Daphne tried to sleep, but she couldn’t. She tossed and turned and cried and when she closed her eyes all she could see was the picture on the news and her sister being carried away, squirming and screaming. At about 2 am, Daphne leaped from her bed in a cold sweat. She called Shaggy.

“Daphne, are you okay?” He answered, concerned but groggy.

Daphne was crying. “I don’t know what to do.” She said simply. There was a pause.

“I’ll be over in a few.” He told her.

“Thank you” she said. She hung up and let out a wail as tears streamed down her face.

She quickly got herself together and got dressed. She knew that she couldn’t just sit idly by while her sister was in trouble, there was work to be done.

Daphne snuck out of her window to avoid the policemen keeping the house secure. She was actually surprised how easy it was to escape.

Shaggy thought it was stupid for Daphne to be sneaking out this late at night, given the circumstances, but he knew he had to be there for her, and that if she was going to go investigate, it wouldn’t be alone. Shaggy had brought Scooby-Doo along with them, hoping he could sniff out clues or protect them from potential kidnappers. Scoob may not have been up to the task, but any reinforcements were good reinforcements.

“Anything new?” Shaggy asked, driving to the crime scene.

“No. My parents won’t let me know anything that isn’t on the news.” Daphne said, hugging her shoulders in the cold November air.

Scooby-Doo whined and shoved his head into Daphne’s arm, begging for an ear scratch.

Daphne smiled and pet the dog hesitantly before returning to her worried gaze out the window.

Shaggy noticed all of this and was very happy that his dog and his best friend were connecting.

When they arrived, Daphne didn’t get out of the car. She sat still, looking out the window to the tall building that overflowed with darkness. She didn’t know if she was ready. She didn’t even know where to start. She didn’t know what she was doing there. All of these swarming thoughts were ended when Shaggy put his hand on her shoulder, wordlessly telling her that whatever she wanted to do was okay with him.

She looked at him and let a tear fall, quickly wiping it away and getting out of the van. The rare emotional moment for Daphne was gone just as quickly as it came.

Shaggy left the dog in the car, and hoped they wouldn’t be gone long.

Daphne took a key from her purse and opened the front door. She two escaped from the early morning sidewalks and became swallowed by the darkness. The black air was thick and heavy.

Daphne turned on her flashlight and hugged the wall, Shaggy following behind.

“Where did you get that key?” Shaggy asked. It wasn’t surprising that Daphne could be resourceful, but he never disliked one of Daphne’s stories.

“I have a copy from when my sister first got the job. She thought she lost it and had another copy made, but I just stole it. I had big plans to mess with the files and stuff, but never got around to it." Her words faded into the darkness.

Shaggy smiled. What an accurate microcosm of Daphne as a person. Devious schemes, too lazy to make them happen.

The two scouted their way to Dawn’s office, police tape around the door. A policeman was sitting there asleep, with a single, weak light illuminating his figure, collapsed into a cushy chair.

Daphne looked at Shaggy, wordlessly asking what to do. Shaggy shrugged, then noticed the manila folder next to the policeman’s feet. Shaggy looked at Daphne, looked at the paper, and creeped over to it. He swiped it away from the officer and brought it back to Daphne. The two maneuvered their way back to the car to read the folder.

“We should hurry,” Daphne said. “We don’t know when he will wake up.”

Shaggy thumbed through the file and looked for any ounce of information that he could. He didn’t even really know what to do with the information once he got it, he just knew it would mean progress.

There were several pictures of the crime scene from different angles, and several pictures of the note left behind. Daphne read it furiously, and took a picture of it with her phone.

It read, “Those of us in town are fed up with the Blake family. Their greed and power is growing, and worrisome, and action must be taken. We have taken Mayor Dawn Blake-Carrington, and will not return her until all Blakes have resigned from their positions of power, and Mr. Drew Blake has given all of his wealth to us. More information will arise as time goes on, but for now, know that Dawn is safe, and shall remain that way so long as the city complies. The Blakes have far too much control. We must see them give it back to the public, or there will be no Blakes left.

-The Justice Seekers”

The note was vague, which meant there would probably be more to come.

Daphne sat in silence. The dog nuzzled up to her hand that was gripping the photo of the note and she pet him. Shaggy looked at her expectantly. Daphne thumbed through the rest of the file and took pictures of the information she found useful. Shaggy sat and watched silently.

The two snuck back into the building around 5 am to return the folder. As they were walking down the hallway, the lights all automatically buzzed on. The kids felt caught. They looked around the corner to where the policeman was sleeping, but he was gone. The chair and all the rest of his things were there, so they knew he would be back. Shaggy ran up to return the manila folder, and just as his hand parted from it, the policeman came out of the bathroom door.

“Hey, what are you doing?” He said authoritatively.

Shaggy was stuck, Daphne watched from the corner with her hands over her mouth in anticipation.

“Sorry, sir. Just a junior detective looking for fingerprints.” Shaggy joked, pretending to inspect the broken glass near the door.

The policeman wasn’t amused.

“Why don’t you move along. What are you even doing here?” He asked.

“Just told you, sir.” Shaggy reiterated.

The policeman moved to get his chair, and Shaggy tumbled to the ground, breaking the caution tape and opening the door to the mayor’s office.

“What the hell are you doing, get up.” The policeman said.

“What do you mean? You pushed me!” Shaggy said, standing quickly.

Daphne almost noticed him put something in his pocket as he stood up.

“I didn't even touch you, kid. Get out of here before I get really angry.” He said.

“Fine, I'll leave," Shaggy told him, backing away. "But you were one sprained wrist from a lawsuit, mister!” Shaggy said angrily. Daphne giggled behind him and latched to his arm.

“You have to stop doing that!” Daphne chided as they went to exit the building.

“But then I wouldn’t get to see your face when you're fearing for my life,” Shaggy countered.

The two scurried out the building and back to Shaggy’s van, giggling about the encounter.

Reality struck as Daphne lurched into her seat, and she had to face, yet again, the reality that her family was in danger.

She was lost in thought for a few minutes, and suddenly the car was moving.

Shaggy was driving them home when Daphne interrupted the silence.

“How can they say that Dawn is safe with all that blood?” Daphne asked.

“I don’t know, Daph.” Shaggy responded, humoring her as the thought out loud.

“I mean, that has to be enough blood for a knockout,” Daphne went on, turning white with fear for her sister. “I just wish we could have gotten a look into her office,” She continued.

“Well, we may not have seen it, but I have some evidence that might interest you…” Shaggy said, handing her something from out of his pocket.

It was a shard of glass with bits of dried blood on it.

“What is this, a clue?” Daphne asked, taking the token.

“I just reached into the room when I fell and grabbed anything I could without him noticing.” Shaggy said, glancing over to Daphne at the red light.

“Oh my god, you are awesome.” Daphne said, resting her hand on Shaggy’s shoulder and smiling at him.

Shaggy didn’t respond, he just smiled and glanced at her for a moment before the light turned green.


	7. Chapter 7

Shaggy pulled up into his usual parking spot at his house. He quietly took Scoob into the house, then returned to walk Daphne home. They took the back way to Daphne’s house to avoid the policemen guarding it.

Daphne remained a few steps ahead of Shaggy, and Shaggy kept a close eye on the surroundings. He watched her hair bounce and saw her shoulders raise and lower with her heavy breathing.

They made it to Daphne’s house, and she began to scale the tree next to her window to get back inside.

Shaggy was about to leave when he was compelled to speak.

“Do you want me to go in with you? We could look at the evidence you took a picture of on your phone.” He said, not sure how she would respond.

She paused for a moment, then nodded her head yes. The two climbed the tree, then hopped onto the roof next to her windowsill. Daphne crouched in the window and left her hand out for Shaggy, who stumbled in loudly.

Daphne shushed him, and he wordlessly apologized. They looked at each other with anticipation, waiting to hear if anyone in the house had noticed. Their gaze turned into awkward smiles and stifled laugher as Shaggy took off his boots and tiptoed to the edge of Daphne’s bed.

They thumbed through the pictures Daphne took of the files. Nothing but a bunch of routine observations and reports. Shaggy kept looking at Daphne who was so intently writing down any information that seemed useful.

“Hey, maybe you should go to bed.” He murmured.

Daphne looked up from her notes. “No, I need to finish looking at this evidence.”

“Daph, maybe we should leave this to the police.” He protested, finally working up the courage to say what he felt the whole time.

“I can’t just sit here when my sister is in trouble.” She whispered angrily, her eyes welling with tears. “And even if I could, I’m too stressed to sleep.”

“Well, it’s been a stressful day, maybe just relax for a second. You could get a few hours in before school? What do you normally do to relieve stress?”

“Normally I play lacrosse, but I can’t do that right now.” She said, tears rolling down her face. She paused and took a deep, frustrated breath. “I’m sorry… I’m- I’m sorry. It’s just… what if we don’t find her?”

“They will.” He told her. “We can help, but we don’t need to do all the work that a team of detectives is doing right now, okay?” Daphne was unresponsive. Shaggy took her hand that was writing notes and held it. He forced her to look at him.

“Everything will be fine.” He told her.

Daphne leaned her head in and rested her forehead against his. Her crying died down and she wiped her tears off with her sleeve. She looked down at their hands clasped together. Shaggy looked up at her smiled warmly.

Daphne remembered his encounter with his parents the night before. She felt like a bad friend, forgetting to check up on him.

“How are you after last night? Are you okay?”

Shaggy scratched his head and tried to play it off.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I’m just worried about you.”

Daphne didn’t buy it, so she looked at him skeptically until he continued. 

“And even if I’m not, your issue is clearly the more important one to deal with right now.” He finished.

Daphne didn’t like when he minimized his problems like this, however, he was right in that Daphne’s current problem was much more important that his, so she let it go.

 

A moment passed.

“Do you want me to leave so you can sleep?” He asked.

She rested her head on his chest. “No, why don’t you stay?” she responded. She was terrified of the idea of being alone right now.

“Okay.” He said calmly. She could almost hear the smile creep across his face.

The two just sat for a while. Daphne’s head resting on his chest. She enjoyed feeling his rhythmic breathing and his arms wrapped around her upper back. It was a well-deserved break after a night of stress, and soon, Daphne was groggy. 

Shaggy got up slowly and put her to sleep. Daphne got under the covers and mumbled something along the lines of ‘goodnight’. 

Shaggy responded to her with “goodnight” as he began to leave out the window. 

 


	8. Chapter 8

 

Shaggy got home within a few minutes. 

As usual, he entered from the back of the house. He went in to take off his coat and pet the dog. Scooby-Doo was asleep, so he figured he would just leave him be.

Shaggy kicked off his boots and walked into the kitchen. He carefully opened the refrigerator and searched for something to eat. He settled on a full-sized carrot and a string cheese.

  
Shaggy ran up to his room, careful to avoid the spots in the stairs that creaked too much. If his parents found out he was out so late, he would probably wake up in the hospital.

  
He carefully opened and closed the door to his room and hopped onto his bed. He started to play music and carefully unwrap his food. Shaggy ate his late-night snack and waited for the sun to come up.

...

Velma was on the other side of town, but she was just getting home, too. A party at one of her friend’s houses went on a bit longer than she expected.

  
“You sure you don’t need me to walk you in?” a football player asked as he pulled up next to her house to drop her off.

  
“I’m just fine without you, Aaron.” She snapped.

  
“Jesus, just trying to help, Vee. Man, everyone says you’re such an easy lay, anyways. Why are you making it so hard for me?” He told her.

  
Velma didn’t respond until she was most of the way out of the car.

  
“Fuck you.” She told him

  
“I wish. Bitch.” He responded.

  
Velma walked into her house, making sure the front door closed completely so that Aaron couldn’t sneak in behind her.  
She ran down to the basement to her room.

  
She changed out of her itchy cheer uniform and into some pajamas. After examining herself in the mirror for a moment, she then opened her dresser drawer and put on her glasses, so she was in focus. None of her friends knew Velma had glasses, she didn’t know why she didn’t want to tell them. They were white cat eye frames, complimenting her coffee brown skin.

  
Velma stared for a moment, eyes darting from her jawline to her stomach to her tight ringlets of hair. She just sighed and turned away from the mirror.

  
Velma knew she didn’t fit in with the cheerleaders and jocks. In reality, she just wanted to be a part of chess club, and yearbook, and mathletes, but for some reason she was doomed to a high school full of parties and drinking and rumors about her sexual history.

  
Freshman year, she decided for herself that she would be popular. The geeky girl she had been thus far was going to disappear. She was sick of the bullying. Sick of the loneliness and isolation.

  
It wasn’t that hard to become popular. As soon as you get on cheer team you’re basically in, and it wasn’t hard for Velma to get on cheer team. Not with a forged note to the coach from a gymnastics teacher one town over vouching for Velma’s brilliance. If that didn’t work, she would just bring up how she knows she wouldn’t get on the cheer team ‘cause she isn’t white, then they’d have to give in.

  
Velma eventually caught up to the other girls on cheer, and was actually better than some of the others after a while. Lots of boys took notice of her, which wasn’t exactly what she was looking for, so she ignored them.

  
That’s when the rumors started.

  
The boys she said no to began to tell everyone how easy she was.

  
Rumors spread, and suddenly everywhere she went there were boys asking her to do things to them, then getting angry when she said no.

  
Even despite this, Vee decided to stay popular, even though it broke her heart the things people must hear about her.

  
She was almost positive Fred had heard everything, which he had. But she didn’t know if he believed it or not.

  
Just then, she remembered she heard her phone go off in the car.

  
“Stay safe tonight! :)” from Fred, 34 minutes ago.

  
She smiled sweetly. She cared about him a lot, and appreciated that he wanted to check up on her.

  
She knew he saw the car drop her off from his bedroom window, so she didn’t reply. She just flipped through social media, looking at all of the pictures from the party she was at. Aaron texted her apologizing for calling her a bitch, but she didn’t respond to that text, either. One of the cheerleaders texted a group chat about a hook up at the party, and Velma just responded with a few emojis and an exclamation point. She fit right in, but she wasn’t at home.  
She fell asleep with her phone on a picture of her holding a water glass next to her cheerleader friends, all holding unmarked red solo cups.


	9. Chapter 9

The bell rang for lunch as Daphne stood up from her desk and lumbered to her usual lunch spot with Shaggy. Neither of them had discussed what happened last night. They were more focused on keeping their eyes open for the rest of the day.

  
“You know we have a chapter quiz in Psychology today, right?” Shaggy told Daphne.

  
“My sister was kidnapped. I can just cry and they’ll let me take it later.” Daphne replied. She was pretty sure she was going to cry at some point today, and figured she should put it to good use.

  
“I’m surprised you even wanted to come to school today, Daph.” Shaggy said.

  
“No, what’s really surprising is that my parents are letting me to go school today.” She told him with a smirk.

  
“Yeah, and that they would trust ‘ol Shaggy to take you to school instead of some cop car or valet.” He went on.

  
Daphne smiled weakly. They locked eyes for a nanosecond before they both looked away.

  
“We should do something with the evidence we got last night.” Daphne said seriously.

  
“Do what? The police are the ones that found the information, all we can do is just see what they have.” Shaggy responded.

  
“I don’t know, but I can’t just do nothing.” Daphne said. She was obsessing over it. Last night she fell asleep reading the police reports, and she brought the shattered piece of glass to school with her in a Ziploc bag. Shaggy had been watching her examine it all day.

  
“Maybe we can take this information to someone smart and see if they can make some sense of it.” Shaggy offered.

  
Daphne slowly nodded her head, and then stood up to go to the science lab.

  
“Woah woah woah, right now?” Shaggy asked.

  
“Yeah. No time to waste.” Daphne responded dryly.  
…  
Fred was sitting in his usual spot in the lab, waiting for Velma. He had texted her every two minutes since lunch started to see if she was coming, but she hadn’t responded. He was upset, but still quite occupied with his drawings of all of the inventions he hypothesized about.

  
Daphne zig zagged around the hall trying to remember where Fred and Vee were last time they all met up. She noticed some sympathetic glances in her direction. Shaggy put his hand on her back and led her through the people as more and more stared at her with their ‘I’m sorry’ faces.

  
Daphne would have cared, but all of her focus was on finding the lab.

  
Fred looked at his phone, beginning to type another message to Velma, when he heard footsteps. He looked up and met eyes with Daphne, who actually looked happy to see him.

  
“Well hi there!” Fred said enthusiastically. It took him a moment to remember he was supposed to treat Daphne like glass, in light of the circumstances. Daphne had appreciated the brief departure from overwhelming sympathy.

  
“Hi. Uh, is…Vee here?” Shaggy asked as Daphne set down her backpack.

  
“Velma? Oh, no, not today.” Fred responded, looking very obviously upset.

  
“Velma? Is that her full name?” Daphne asked, bewildered.

  
“Yeah. Velma Rose Marie Dinkley.” Fred recited sweetly.

  
“Huh” Daphne said. “I guess I didn’t picture such an… old fashioned name.” She said.

  
“Well, she went by Velma up until middle school, then one day she just switched. I still call her Velma though. Can’t really break the habit.” Fred reasoned.  
As Fred spoke, Daphne set all of her things on the table. The print outs of the files, her notes and theories from the night before, and the small piece of actual evidence they had; the shard of glass.

  
“So we are wondering if you can help us.” Daphne said steering the conversation away from niceties.  
“Are these… clues?” Fred asked with the excitement of a child.

  
“Yes.” Daphne responded seriously. “Do you think you could read over the evidence or something? If there’s anything there, we want to know. I know that you’re speci-“

  
“Smart. We know that you’re smart.” Shaggy corrected. Daphne went on.

  
“Anyways, if there’s anything you can do for us, it would be awesome.” She finished.

  
Fred took the papers and began to sort through them. “Well I can try.” He said proudly. “Could I meet with the police about it?” He asked.  
“Uh… well…” Shaggy began.

  
Fred gasped. “Are you not supposed to have this stuff?”

  
“No.” Daphne responded dryly. Fred looked both shocked and impressed.

  
“Well then, I guess I’ll make the best of what I have.” Fred said, his enthusiasm returning.

  
Just then, Velma walked through the door, stopping a few steps in.

  
She scanned the contents of Fred’s hands and looked at the expectant bodies facing her own.

  
“Are you asking Fred for advice about the kidnapping?” She asked not a moment after she had entered.

  
Daphne was aghast for another moment, then answered “Yes.”

  
Velma continued, “well I was just going to stay for a moment, but I suppose I can help. I mean, if you need it.”

  
For some reason, Daphne was apprehensive. But before she could create an excuse, Shaggy welcomed her in.

  
Velma approached the table and looked over the same papers as Fred. She noticed the small plastic bag with the glass shard.

  
“Is this from the scene of the crime?” Velma asked.

  
“Uh, yeah. Shaggy grabbed it last night.” Daphne said, standing up to join her.

  
Velma paused. “Hey Fred, can you tell me if you can find an estimate for the amount of blood at the crime scene?”

  
“Sure can.” Fred responded, neck deep in paperwork and loving every second.

  
They thumbed through the papers for a few more minutes. Daphne couldn’t sit still. Every flip of paper was driving her crazy, and she dreaded more and more, as every second passed, that she would have to go back to class and stuff the mystery back into her backpack.

  
“Oh, I found it!” Fred exclaimed, setting the paper down and underlining the phrase he had spotted. “Several pints of blood estimated at the scene. Splatter formations seem inconsistent and sporadic.”

  
“Hmm.” Velma said. She took the paper and read further, then jumped out of her chair and towards a lab table, picking up the glass shard on the way.

  
“W-what are you doing?” Daphne asked, trying to keep up.

  
“I need to take a closer look at the blood on this glass.” Velma responded.

  
“Yeah, but why?” Daphne asked.

  
“If they said there were ‘several’ pints of blood, that is well over a level 3 hemorrhage, and your sister could very well be dead.” Velma began. Daphne felt the last word very deeply in her stomach. Velma continued. “But we know she isn’t, ‘cause they are asking for a ransom. The police described the splatter like it wasn’t coming from a wound, but maybe just splashed onto the walls for effect.

  
“So you’re saying that it isn’t Dawn’s blood?” Shaggy asked.

  
“Well,” Velma said, holding up a microscope slide, “only one way to find out.”


	10. Chapter 10

Velma swabbed some of the dried blood off of the glass shard an onto a microscope slide. She was working so fast, that all Daphne could do is just watch.

“How do you even know that stuff?” Daphne asked.

“I’m in year 3 anatomy and physiology.” Velma said, beginning to mount the slide and adjust the view.

Daphne was surprised. She had always thought of Vee to be an airhead.

“I didn’t know you were…”Daphne trailed off.

“Smart?” Velma asked. She took a moment to confirm that that is indeed what Daphne meant. Daphne nodded lightly.

Velma considered for a second. “Thanks.” She said. Then she continued bringing the blood sample into focus.

Daphne looked over at the table where Fred and Shaggy were sitting. Shaggy gave her a look of ‘I can’t believe you just said that’ and Fred gave a look of ‘I know, right?’

Velma brought the slide into the highest field power and looked up from the oculars.

“Daphne, take a look.” She said knowingly.

Daphne wasted no time in looking at the specimen. She could see little red blobs, with darker circles inside of each one. Then, dispersed in between them, were tiny little blueish specks arranged in chains.

Before she could even ask what she was looking at, Velma answered for her. “The red is, obviously, blood cells, as you can see, but do you see those blue dots?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Daphne said. The boys stood up from the table and gathered with the girls at the microscope.

“I’m pretty sure those are a type of bacterium found in pig’s blood. I forget the name, here, I’ll look it up.” She said, typing into her phone.

Daphne looked for just a second more before letting the boys take a look.

“So, this isn’t my sisters blood?” She asked, hopefully.

“Nope. Not with bacterial levels like that. Plus, these cells have a nucleus. Human blood cells have a double concave shape. This sample didn't come from a human at all.” Fred responded from the microscope.

Daphne sighed with relief. Shaggy hugged her sweetly. “She’s okay” he said. He wasn’t very confident in the statement, but anything to improve Daphne’s mood.

“Okay! I think I found it. Streptococcus suis.” Velma said, pulling up a picture on her phone of zoomed in blueish purple logs of bacteria.

“Looks like it.” Fred verified, comparing the specimen with the picture.

“So… what do we do with this information.” Shaggy asked.

“Are you guys free after school? We could head over to the local farms and see if anyone has lost a pig recently.” Velma said.

Shaggy looked at Daphne, who nodded yes instantaneously.

“Can I come?” Fred asked, nervous yet optimistic.

“I was asking all three of you.” Velma said, slightly aggravated but kind.

“Yeah, and we need you, man. You’ve read through all the papers, right?” Shaggy asked, endearingly punching Fred in the shoulder.

Fred smiled. “Oh yeah. Any information you need from that case file, I’ve got it.” He said, pointing to his temple.

Daphne smiled. She liked when Fred felt useful. She also liked it when, for once, his crazy organization and memory was actually useful.

The four exchanged phone numbers as they planned on where to meet after school.

“We can take my van,” Shaggy offered.

“Okay, I’ll have to tell my friends I’m bailing on manicures.” Velma said, almost giddily.

“I’ll have to call my mom to make sure I can hang out,” Fred said, going to the far corner of the room to call.

“Oh shit, my parents will never let me stay out after school.” Daphne realized.

Shaggy thought for a second, his brow furrowed.

“Maybe tell them you got detention?” He offered.

“No, they would expect a parent meeting or something.” Daphne replied.

“What if you told them you had lacrosse?” Velma asked.

Daphne thought for a moment. “Yeah, that might work, as long as I’m back here by 5 for the chauffeur to pick me up.” She said. Velma and Fred looked at her, making her realize how ridiculous that sounded. “Or I can just say you’re picking me up.” She corrected, looking at Shaggy.

Just as the kids started to formulate their plans, the bell for fourth period rang. Students began to flood the hall on their way to their next class.

“We’ll meet next to the bleachers after school.” Velma told everyone. She picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She ran into other cheerleaders in the hall. She greeted them with a voice entirely unlike the one she just used with the others. It was shrill and excited.

Daphne had no time to dwell on that, she was just thankful that she was making headway on her investigation.

Shaggy picked up his backpack from the table and waited for Daphne. He watched her leave the room and followed behind her. She looked back for a moment, and Shaggy was happy to see some hope in her eyes.


	11. Chapter 11

Georgia got home from school twenty minutes after class got out. She ran into the house and kicked off her shoes. With a quick hello to her dad in the kitchen, she walked up the creaky stairs and into her room where she slipped off her backpack and sat it on her bed. She started to work on homework right away.

Georgia was a senior, only two years older than Daphne. She remembered at lacrosse tryouts last year how she and Daphne first realized how well they clicked as team members. The girls had actually led their team to the state tournament. They only finished sixth overall, but it was exciting.

That’s why Georgia was so preoccupied. She couldn’t stop thinking about how Daphne must be feeling. She kept trying to do her homework, but she kept finding herself starting a text message to Daphne, then deleting it.

She knew that Daphne wouldn’t want that. If there’s anything Daphne isn’t, its needy.

Georgia had attempted to invite Daphne over a few times, but after the third or fourth decline in a row, she decided to stop asking. She knew Daphne liked her, but she respected that Daphne wanted space, the only exception being Norville.

Georgia’s mom used to work for his parents as a food supplier to their chef. Sometimes when she was at a consultation for them, she had Villie would play together. She liked that they were both named after places. Then when he hit puberty, suddenly he started going by “Shaggy”. He got all weird and started smoking. Georgia never really talked to him anymore.

Georgia closed her laptop, ending her feeble attempt to study, and went downstairs to talk to her dad.

“Hey pops.” Georgia said to her father.

He jumped a bit, then looked up from the counter. “Hey, kid.” He said, wearisome.

“Are you okay? Where’s mom?” She asked.

“Oh yeah, just had a late night.” Her father said, scratching his head and adjusting his glasses. “And your mother is out buying insulator for the henhouse.”

Georgia nodded awkwardly. Their conversation had ended. After a moment, she looked out the window. She saw the field where the cows usually grazed. But in the winter months, they stayed in the barn with the pigs. Her mind wandered as she stared out the window until her view was interrupted by an old, beat up van coming up the driveway.

 ...

Daphne felt uncomfortable going to the house of someone she sort-of knew. She figured Georgia would offer her sympathy and even maybe try to hug her, and Daphne didn’t have the energy to pretend that she needed it. But the four teens had not gotten any leads from the first two pig owners on this road, so she had to check every house.

“Can we try to make this one quick?” Daphne asked as they headed towards Georgia’s family’s farm.

“Why?” Shaggy said from the driver’s seat.

“My excuse to be out of the house is almost up. My mom is freaking out.” Daphne said, rereading all of the frantic texts she received and trying to create a response that would calm her mother down.

“Well, at least you know Georgia. We can be brief.” Shaggy told her.

“Is Georgia the one with the wire rim glasses and buzz cut?” Fred asked, from the back.

“That’s GeorGIE.” Velma responded, emphasizing the last syllable. “Georgia is a girl.” She corrected.

“Is she in our grade?” He asked.

“No, she’s a senior. Kind of a tom boy? Georgia Malsam?” Velma asked.

After a moment of thinking, Fred gave up. “I guess I don’t know her.”

Shaggy pulled into the gravel square in front of the porch and parked. The four kids hopped out of the car and headed for the door. Fred hooked the leash onto Scooby-Doo and took him out of the back.

Before they could get there, Georgia stepped out of the house with a confused look on her face.

“H-hi,” She said, surveying the strange group she saw before her. She didn’t know Daphne and Shaggy hung out with Vee or Freaky Freddie. Even the seniors knew about him.

“Hi, Georgia. Sorry, we just have a quick question for your parents.” Daphne said, faking a sweet voice.

Ignoring what Daphne just said, Georgia ran up to Daphne and hugged her.

“Daphne, I’m SO sorry. You must be going through so much.”

Daphne withstood the awkwardness and pressed on for information.

“Could we talk to your parents?” She asked as they two parted from the hug.

Georgia hesitated. She knew her dad wasn’t in the best mood. “Um, I don’t know if they can talk right now. But you can ask me!” She said, seeping optimism.

Daphne was frustrated, but she decided she would take what she could get.

“Have there been any… missing pigs lately?” Daphne asked.

Georgia furrowed her eyebrows. “Uh, what?” She asked.

“Are you missing a pig?” Vee repeated.

“Well… Well no, I mean- I don’t think so. I mean- Wait, why are you asking? My dad feeds the pigs every day and he hasn’t said anything.” Georgia stumbled through her sentences as she tried to make sense of the weirdness.

“It would have probably been recent. Like within the past 24 hours.” Fred clarified.

Georgia, confused, yet eager to help, continued. “Well, we can go check, I guess.”

Daphne smiled. Finally, the conversation was moving along.

The kids all walked to the barn from the house. It was cold, but the walk was short. Georgia was slow, while the others were aching to get some new information and were hustling behind her.

“Here’re the pigs.” Georgia said, confused on what Daphne came for. Georgia opened the barn doors to a perfectly typical stable.

“So here’s where we keep the cows, and then the pigs are right over…” Georgia paused.

Daphne looked at her group with wide eyes. Never before had she wanted so much for a pig to be missing.

“Daphne, what- I mean, how… Where the hell is …” Georgia stumbled, hopping the wooden fence to investigate.

Daphne was excited and turned to her friends, hopping the fence as well.

“How did you know one of our pigs was missing?” Georgia asked suspiciously.

Daphne was excited at the progress but had to calmly get the message across to Georgia.

“Uh, Georgia. I think your pig was taken by the same people that took my sister.” She said.

Georgia laughed. “Huh? What are you talking about? Are you kidding me?”

“Georgia, listen to me. We found pig’s blood at the crime scene, not human blood. I think someone stole one of your pigs and used its blood to make it look like Dawn was hurt.” Daphne continued.

“You were at the crime scene? I’m so… how do you know it’s pigs blood.? How can you be sure?” Georgia asked, putting her head in her hands.

Velma explained the bacterial levels, and also the lack of a double concave structure that human blood cells have. Georgia was confused, not only because of the bewildering information, but because Vee Washington was making coherent sentences.

“Oh my god, my parents are going to be so pissed.” Georgia said.

Daphne was trying to defuse the tension. “Hey Georgia, would you mind if we took a closer look at the barn?” She asked.

Georgia told them it was fine, but she was going outside to breathe.

Daphne and Fred hopped the fence, bringing Scooby-Doo with them. Velma lagged behind to talk to Shaggy.

“Hey Shaggy, could you hang back with Georgia? It looks like she needs someone to explain everything.” She whispered.

Shaggy glanced out to Georgia, who was pacing in the field furiously.

“I don’t know if I’m really up for the task.” He responded.

Velma figured he was more up to the task of comforting Georgia than he was to investigate a crime scene, so she insisted.

Vee joined the others in the barn to investigate further while Shaggy was in charge of explaining everything to Georgia.

He walked outside awkwardly to join her.

Georgia stopped pacing when she noticed him.

“Hey,” he said, tactlessly.

“Hi Villie,” Georgia said playfully, yet worried.

Shaggy chucked softly. “Man, it’s been a while since I’ve heard that nickname.” He told her.

She smiled, her confusion disappearing for a millisecond. Shaggy continued.

“I’m sorry we showed up here, you know, out of the blue and everything.” He said.

“Oh no, it’s fine” She countered, frantically. “I just don’t really understand, I guess.”

Shaggy started to explain. “Well, like Velma sai-”

“Whose Velma?” Georgia asked.

Shaggy sighed in momentary frustration. “Like _Vee_ said, we found blood in the mayor’s office. But when we looked at it up close we found out it was pig’s blood, so we have been looking for any farmers out here who might be missing a pig.”

Georgia nodded thoughtfully. A moment of silence was shared. “I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to my parents.” She said, facing away from him and running her hands though her hair.

Shaggy tried to wean her off of the topic of parents. “Let’s just focus on what you know, okay? Is there anyone you think would have a grudge against you? Or… your pigs?” Shaggy asked stupidly.

Georgia turned back to him. They exchanged serious glances before Georgia erupted into a laugh. “A grudge against my pigs?” She repeated mockingly.

Shaggy smiled at her, realizing the ridiculousness of his statement. She laughed together for longer than the situation allowed for. They stood awkwardly for a moment before Georgia finally answered, “No. No I can’t think of anyone who would want to take our pigs.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll wait for the smart people to figure something out.” Shaggy told her, pointing behind him to the others investigating the barn.

Georgia laughed again, lightly.

The two began talking about school and Georgia’s college search. She seemed to be loosening up as time went on. Soon, the sun was going down and Fred, Daphne and Vee met Shaggy and Georgia out in the grass.

Daphne sighed heavily, her breath evaporating as she exhaled. “My mom is freaking out, I have to go.” She said, looking at Shaggy, who nodded in agreement.

“Well I’ll review the evidence, maybe we can come back to talk to your parents?” Vee asked, looking to Georgia.

“Yeah, um, that sounds good.” Georgia responded. She hesitated for a moment. “Look, if you need anything just text me, here I’ll give you my number.” The said, taking Shaggy’s phone.

“Oh, I already have-” Daphne began, but Georgia was already adding herself to Shaggy’s contacts. Shaggy looked up dumbly and exchanged a surprised look with Daphne.

Georgia returned his phone and said goodbye to the others as they walked back to the van. Fred told Shaggy at length about the barn and showed him the noted he took in his notebook. Shaggy wasn’t paying attention to Fred, though, he was looking at Daphne. Her facial expression was muted, and she had an unfriendly hardness about her movements, even for her, and even in this time of stress.

Fred loaded Scooby-Doo into the back, and soon they were all heading home, seeing the barn, and Georgia, receding in the mirror.

           


	12. Chapter 12

Shaggy had dropped off Fred and Vee, then hurried over to Daphne’s house. Daphne’s phone was receiving text after text from her worried mother. Daphne felt her phone sit on her lap, looking out the window instead. When Shaggy pulled into her driveway, a large group of police officers greeted them. Daphne got out of the car and didn’t even say goodbye to shaggy. He waited for a moment, then was shooed away by a police officer.

Daphne walked up the staircase and was greeted by a forceful hug from her mother. She knew something bad must have happened if her mom ran up to her like that.

“Darling, why did you take so long? Oh, you smell like a barn.” She told her, wincing and stepping away.

“Sorry, practice ran late,” Daphne replied, trying to get past her mother and walk upstairs.

She was stopped, and her mother continued.

“Dear, we need to talk to you. Something happened.”

“Clearly. My sister was kidnapped. I know. Can I take a shower now?” Daphne said harshly. Even as the words came out of her mouth she knew she had gone too far.

Her mother looked hurt, but she paused only a moment. “No. Something new.” She told Daphne.

Daphne looked over to the group of officers carefully examining something with rubber gloves while her father watched. She had never seen her dad look so shaken. Daphne took a moment to become serious as she turned back to her mom.

“What happened?”

           

Earlier that night, the Blakes had received a letter similar to the one left at the crime scene. The letter said their patience was running thin and that the Blakes needed to come up with the ransom. The envelope also contained some pictures of Dawn. Daphne wasn’t allowed to see the pictures, since they were too explicit. But every time she saw her father catch a glimpse, he looked like he was going to cry.

“Sir, it looks like you’ll have to come up with ransom and we can try to catch them at the pick-up site.” Said an officer to Daphne’s father. Due to legal reasons, Chief Delilah Blake was not authorized to work on the case. Instead it was an overweight middle-aged man with a bald spot handling the Blake case. His name was officer Howell.

“Fine. Of course. Whatever you need.” Daphne’s father replied. Daphne edged closer to him and officer Howell as soon as her mom went in for some Chardonnay.

“And, of course, we can’t force you, but the letter does ask you and your family to give up your leadership positions in this community.” Howell continued.

Daphne’s father was hesitant. “I just can’t do that. My business would die without me. My daughter earned her position as police chief.” He went on, but Daphne rolled her eyes.

‘How could someone justify keeping their job over saving their family?’ she thought. ‘He deserves to have his family taken away.’ She continued. She was immediately mortified she would even think that. She hit her head with her palm, almost trying to send the thought away.

Daphne was waiting to go upstairs for a while. She knew she couldn’t be of any help, but she might overhear something to add to what she already knew. But after an hour of waiting downstairs and hearing nothing, she decided it was time for bed.

Daphne tapped an officer on the shoulder. He turned away from his partner and looked at her, his face going from stern to empathetic in an instant.

“Can I go upstairs?” she asked plainly.

“Uh, yeah, sure. We just need to give you an escort…” he told her awkwardly. Daphne visibly seethed.

The officer called a policewoman over to their conversation on the patio. She was apparently assigned keep watch on Daphne. ‘great’ Daphne thought ‘that doesn’t sound creepy at all.’

The woman was short and chubby and had blonde hair slicked back into a ponytail. She shook Daphne’s hand and smiled. Daphne smiled weakly back at her.

She and the policewoman, Officer Lane, walked up the staircase.

Daphne felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She knew it was Shaggy, and she didn’t pick it up to see what he wanted.

Officer Lane walked very slowly up the staircase. Daphne figured her short legs and round figure caused her to move a lot slower than a normal person, though she knew that she herself did everything faster than normal, so it was particularly excruciating.

“If you need anything from me, just let me know,” officer Lane told Daphne as she walked up the stairs. She had a tinge of a Southern accent, which was strange. Not too many Southerners in upstate New York.

Daphne realized she hadn’t responded, so she let out a tone that she figured would be understood as ‘okay’.

Lane stopped outside of Daphne’s bedroom and gestured to the door to let Daphne in first. As Daphne walked past Lane, she noticed two things; one, Daphne was a good two and a half feet taller than her, and two, Officer Lane’s right arm was amputated. Daphne felt herself staring as she walked by and met a knowing glance from Lane just before she turned her head away.

Daphne wanted to know what happened, but thought it was rude to ask. She was also unnecessarily upset with Officer Lane because she was being monitored by a police officer, and wasn’t feeling very up for a conversation.

Officer Lane waited outside the bedroom door, and Daphne closed it gently. She picked up her towel and went into her en suite bathroom, leaving her phone on her bed as an incoming call from Shaggy rang.

 

Shaggy had just gotten home after dropping Daphne off. As he kicked off his boots, he texted her ‘what was with the cop cars? Are you okay?’ he didn’t expect a response right away, but he at least gave her the opportunity to start a conversation when she felt like it.

Shaggy walked in from the mud room to the actual house. When he first walked in the door, he was greeted by his father sitting in the living room reading the newspaper.

“Where the hell were you?” His father asked sternly, putting his paper down. Shaggy knew whenever his dad stopped what he was doing to scold him, it was going to be a blowout.

“I was hanging out with some friends.” Shaggy answered sheepishly.

“You mean that Blake girl?” his dad corrected. Shaggy wasn’t in the mood for a long story about Fred and Vee, and he wasn’t sure his dad was either, so he just left it.

“Yeah,” he responded.

“You’ve gotta tell me where the hell you are, kid. I had no idea what you were up to” he said. Shaggy was collapsed into himself with remorse. “Look at me when I’m talking to you,” he continued.

Shaggy looked up at his father, now standing a few feet away from him. A tear subconsciously dropped from Shaggy’s eye.

“If you’re MIA like that again,” his dad said, grabbing Shaggy’s arm that was bruised from their last encounter, “You’ll have a lot more to cry about.”

Shaggy’s dad twisted his arm, and he recoiled with a yell of pain.

“Shut the hell up.” His dad said. He twisted his arm again and pushed Shaggy away as he went back to his paper.

Shaggy fell onto the floor, his bruises throbbing. He scurried off of the floor and up into his room, tears welling.

He got into his room and gently shut the door, locking it after it closed.

“Bastard.” He whispered to himself.

He got out his phone to text Daphne. No response. He figured she would pick up a phone call.

He dialed, it rang, no one picked up.

He pulled the phone from his ear with tears streaming down his face.

Shaggy looked in his mirror. His face was all red from crying and his arm was purple and black with large handprints from days ago. He felt alone.

After a moment of staring in the mirror, he decided to curl up and go to sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

After an hour or two, Daphne had fallen asleep, and she was dreaming she was back at city hall, the same stark lights flickering above her. The door to the mayor’s office was open, and it was dark.

Daphne peered past the door and saw her sister sitting at her desk. Dawn looked up at her sister and smiled. She stood to hug her.

She ran through the door to hug Dawn, her eyes welling with tears. Daphne grabbed Dawn tight and let a sigh of relief escape her chest.

“I missed you,” Daphne said.

“I missed you, too” Dawn replied.

She pulled away from Dawn and noticed a small cut on her face that had not been there a moment ago.

Dawn touched her cheek and was surprised at the blood. Then some more dripped from a cut that formed just above her eyebrow. Dawn looked at Daphne with fear in her eyes.

Daphne stepped away, confused and scared.

More and more cuts formed, like an invisible knife slashing her face apart. Dawn started screaming and fell onto the ground.

Daphne cried out for help, watching her sister writhe in pain as her face was being torn to shreds. She got up to yell through the door for someone to help but was met by a horrible monster waiting outside the door, smiling at her.

 

Daphne sat up in her bed, heart pounding, eyes blurry. She must have screamed, because when her eyes focused, Officer Lane was standing in the doorway.

“Are you alright?” Lane asked.

Daphne signed and reached for the glass of water on her nightstand. “Yeah. Just been having dreams lately.”

There was a pause. Both of these women were straightforward, and neither were very gifted conversationalists.

“Do you need anything?” Lane asked.

Daphne didn’t know how to answer. She needed lots of things, but nothing that Lane could give her. She wanted her sister back, she wanted to not be angry at Shaggy anymore, she wanted to stop being stared at every time she walked in the hallways at school. Then she remembered that Lane might be able to give her something.

“Can you tell me about the case?”

Officer Lane looked confused. She obviously hadn’t expected that answer. Daphne stared at her expectantly.

“It’s against protocol to-”

“Anything. Please,” Daphne asked.

Lane sighed as she flipped on the light switch and sat in Daphne’s desk chair.

“All I am able to tell you is that anyone in your family is a target, and that the city needs to keep you safe.”

“Do you have any idea who did it?” Daphne asked.

            Lane’s body language shifted. It was glaring that the police definitely knew something.

            “No.” Lane said.

            Daphne felt defeated. But she figured that Lane could be worn down over time.

“Okay,” Daphne told her.

Lane stood up and went to the door, shutting off the lights.

“Get some sleep. I’ll be just outside if you need me.” She told her.

Daphne tucked herself back into bed. It was 3 am.

She started to respond to Shaggy’s text from earlier but deleted the message before she sent it. She paused a moment, then began to text Vee.

“I’m on 24/7 surveillance. How can we keep looking for evidence?” she asked. As she typed, it felt weird to be speaking so informally to miss popularity, but when times call for it, you’ll do whatever you need to.

Daphne went to sleep, waking to her phone lighting up a few minutes later. It was a response from Vee.

“Leave that to me. Skip PE and meet me under the bleachers.”

 

Daphne was driven to school by Officer Lane. She wasn’t allowed to be alone anymore. Normally, Daphne would have been angry that she was being watched but seeing the look on Shaggy’s face as she drove past his van made the morning a little sweeter.

Shaggy had driven over to pick Daphne up for school, but she apparently already had a ride. ‘Why wouldn’t she tell me?’ he thought.

School went normally for Daphne. Officer Lane sat in the back of the room and read her David Sedaris. She didn’t bother anyone until class was over, and she had to take Daphne by the arm to take her to her next class. Daphne asked if this was necessary. Officer Lane said it was.

Daphne was getting more and more strange looks by the day. First it was looks of sympathy, but now it was just out of bewilderment. Some people thought she was getting arrested, which made sense, ‘cause she usually reeked of weed, but not today, for obvious reasons. Daphne even got a note in her locker asking who her new girlfriend was.

“Wow. Shockingly original” she told herself as she threw the note in the trash.

Daphne was taking books out of her locker when Shaggy ran up to her.

“Daph, where have you been? I tried picking you up this morning,” Shaggy told her. Daphne didn’t look at him. She kept focusing on her locker.

“Clearly, I was being taken to school by a police officer.” She told him.

Shaggy looked past her locker to Officer Lane standing next to her. Shaggy put his hand out to shake. His left hand. Daphne smirked at how much he was about to embarrass himself.

Officer Lane just waved at him and stretched out her amputated arm as his eyes widened with shame.

“I-I’m sorry,” he said. “Hi, I’m…” he paused, then told her flatly “Norville.”

She smiled and told him her name was Officer Lane.

“Okay, great, you know each other. See you later, Shaggy.” Daphne said, taking off for her third period. Officer Lane sped off behind her without saying goodbye, leaving Shaggy standing at her open locker. Shaggy looked off at Daphne, her puff of orange hair bouncing away, and closed her locker as the bell rang.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I know I haven't been updating very consistently, but this week was so slow, I was able to do two new chapters! I just finished planning the end of the mystery, so now the whole story is thought out! (don't worry, there will be many more chapters before it ends) Please, if you like the story, share this with your friends! I know Scooby-Doo is a niche fandom, but I hope that nostalgia can help the fan base grow. If you have any suggestions, critiques, requests, or just really like the story, let me know! Comments are the best part of this whole experience. Thanks guys!  
> -bananagoose

The moment Daphne dreaded had begun. The lunch bell rang, and Daphne had to find a place where she could spend 40 minutes extracting information from her police officer guard dog. 

Daphne was a little happy that Officer Lane gave her some level of an excuse to not eat lunch with Shaggy, Fred, and Vee, but she also wasn’t prepared to eat out in the open with this woman either. Daphne was already a sight to behold without a pear-shaped amputee with handcuffs on her belt walking her by the hand.

Daphne felt bad about the pear-shaped thing as soon as it came into her head.

As she walked, she subconsciously hit her head lightly with her free hand, as if to physically shake the mean thought from her head. She wished she wasn’t so vicious all the time.

Daphne had developed a fight response early on. Her gut reaction was to go for the jugular, even with people she liked. She knew that it accounted for about 80% of the fights she had with Delilah growing up. Daphne often felt herself do this to her only younger sister, Daisy. She even made Daisy cry a few times without even meaning to.

‘But Lane seems tough enough to withstand my mirth’ Daphne told herself jokingly. She tended to associate with strong types for that reason. Shaggy crept into her mind. She knew she was being purposefully withholding, and she had justified it without even considering her motive. Was she too stressed? No. Was she mad at him? Maybe. Was she jealous about Georgia asking for his phone number?

Daphne decided to sit with Officer Lane outside on the benches next to the entrance. Usually, nobody liked to eat there since it’s the only place where the view of Hayden lake was replaced by a parking lot. She could withstand the small amount of passersby showing off weird looks at the Blake girl with a cop.

Lane pulled a Tupperware of rice and vegetables out of her bag. It was the fancy Tupperware with the spoon and fork built into the cover. Daphne pulled out a granola bar and a protein shake.

She sensed Lane looking at her meager meal with judgement. Daphne felt that she had received enough critical glances that day and flatly asked “what?”

“Are you sure that’s all you’re hungry for?” Lane asked, more caring than judging. The tone had softened Daphne’s response.

“I guess so, I don’t know.” She said.

Lane gave Daphne a five dollar bill from her pocket.

“Go get something from the vending machine” she instructed. Before Daphne could return the money, Lane continued, “I’m on a case, I’ll get reimbursed if I really want to.” She assured her.

Daphne smiled as she walked into the front hall. ‘Like I need any extra cash,’ she thought.

She started punching in the number for a baggie of cut apples. The school had only healthy food as part of some Michelle Obama initiative. As she was waiting for her food to drop down, a boy went up to her and began making fun of her. Daphne ignored him and pushed past. She had gotten good at taking taunts, his week being especially challenging.

As she walked back outside to the bench, she could hear his insults echoing in the hall.

“Who’s that?” Lane asked.

Daphne looked back at the closing door. “A fan of mine.” She answered with a sigh.

There was a pause, officer Lane looked at Daphne as if she was going to say something, then changed her mind and said “I’m sorry that the police have to follow you around all the time. It’s just a precaution until all of this is sorted out.” Daphne noticed Lane gesturing with both of her arms, her phantom hand waving in front of her torso.

“What happened to you?” Daphne asked. She was respectful, but it was still out of morbid curiosity.

She had expected Officer Lane to be apprehensive about her arm, but she didn’t expect her to turn the conversation into a transaction.

“Why were you so mad at that boy in front of your locker today?” Lane asked with a smile.

Daphne smirked, as though she had been beaten in her own game. She looked at officer Lane with the respect that could only be given by a teenager.

“You tell me yours first,” Daphne proposed.

Lane paused and squinted her eyes. “I don’t think I trust you to tell me your full story.” 

Daphne paused again. Officer Lane was just on the cusp of being too old to be relatable to her, but she really wanted to hear about her arm.

“His name is actually Shaggy, not Norville.” She said, crinkling her nose at the word ‘Norville’ with benign disgust. “He’s my best friend, and I’ve just been spending a lot of time with him lately… I don’t know, I guess I’m just angry about nothing.” She said, staring directly forward and crumpling her wrappers as she spoke. “Was that enough?”

Officer Lane paused, then she began. “I got shot in my arm 3 years ago.” 

“Holy shit,” Daphne said, unable to contain her emotion. She was worried she offended Officer Lane, but she just smiled. 

“Yep. Back when I lived in Atlanta, I was on the job for a bank robbery, and one of them shot my arm. The wound got infected, it shattered by ulna, anyways, so they had to take it off.” She said, matter-of-factly.

Daphne absorbed the information. The story was so much better than she had hoped, and all she wanted was more details. She figured now wouldn’t be the right time to ask about the accident, so she asked about aftermath.

“Why did you move here?” Daphne asked.

“Change of pace. My brother moved up here with his family right after, I wanted to get away from the city, live a quieter life, so I figured I’d tag along.” She responded. Daphne sensed her getting sad. She figured it was enough questions for now.

Daphne packed up her bag and got ready for her fourth period. As they stood up from the bench, Daphne thanked Officer Lane.

“I’m just doing my job and keeping you safe.” Lane told her.

“No I mean- well, yes, thank you for that- but I meant thank you for sharing that with me.” Daphne corrected.

Offer Lane seemed surprised. She glanced down at her amputated arm for a moment before looking back at Daphne and smiling a non-verbal ‘you’re welcome’. 

“Until tomorrow.” Lane said, patting her hand on Daphne’s shoulder. 

“Until tomorrow.” Daphne replied.


	15. Chapter 15

Daphne enjoyed spending time with Officer Lane. She was glad that she was paired with someone who was tough yet still approachable. Which is why she felt so bad for betraying her trust on the first day.

The bell rang for fifth period, which was when Vee told her to skip. Daphne was a little concerned that Vee knew her schedule offhand, but now wasn’t the time for questions.

Daphne had already changed into her PE uniform in the locker room, and she was trying to find an excuse to get Lane off of her back.

“Alright, let’s go,” Officer Lane told her, opening the door to the locker room for Daphne.

She hesitated before responding. “Hey, do you think you could… hang back this period?” She asked. By the expression on Officer Lane’s face, she needed more than that. “It’s just that… having someone watch me condition gives me performance anxiety.” She said.

Lane considered for a moment. Daphne figured the conversation they had had at lunch that day was what made her say “fine,” which made her feel even worse for sneaking away.

Normally, on a free day, Daphne would choose to be in the conditioning room, lifting free weights, but today, for the sake of sneaking, she decided to go outside to the track to run, right next to the bleachers.

Daphne ran a few laps before sneaking under the bleachers where she met an expectant Vee. Daphne had a million questions, like ‘how do you know my schedule?’ ‘what class are you missing?’ and ‘how was Shaggy at lunch?’

Instead, she settled on “how long were you waiting?”

“Not long,” Vee responded. It was that which frustrated Daphne so much. Vee never gave an answer that wasn’t riddled with ambiguity. Everything she said was engineered to withhold information and perpetuate and aire of mystery. She was either a bitch or a genius.

“Is the police officer out here with you? How long do you have?” Vee asked, peering through the stadium seats.

Daphne took a page out of Vee’s own book. “Long enough,” She replied mysteriously.

Vee looked back at Daphne blankly.

“Probably a half hour,” Daphne said.

“Okay, then I don’t have time to explain everything, you should just come to my house tonight with the guys.” Vee told her.

“Oh, well, I don’t think I can…” Daphne responded.

Not hearing her, or just choosing to ignore her, Vee responded “Shaggy will pick you up tonight. I’ll text you when.”

            A chill ran down Daphne’s back when she imagined Shaggy doing her a favor. And being alone in a car with him, after the past 24 hours of unpleasantness. Still, she knew that Vee would have better information than what she had, which was a shard of glass and a folder on her phone full of nothing.

            “Okay. I’ll see you tonight.” Daphne told her.

 

Never before had Daphne been so scared to sneak out of her house. It was partly because she was betraying the trust of Officer Lane, a person who Daphne didn’t completely hate on sight, and partly because of the person who was picking her up.

“Alright, are you all set for the night?” Officer Lane asked from the doorway as Daphne entered her room.

“Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think so.” Daphne said, her voice shaking and her eyes wide.

Officer Lane looked at her suspicious demeanor for a moment. Daphne shook under the heat of Officer Lane’s eyes. For such a sweet lady, she had an intense glare. Maybe that’s what made her choose to be a cop.

“Look, kid, I know what’s going on here,” Lane began.

“…You do?” Daphne asked, only mildly terrified.

“You can stop the schtick.” Lane said. Daphne felt defeated. She knew that Daphne was sneaking out. Lane continued. “I know you want to get the information from me, but I just can’t”

‘Oh.’ Daphne thought, ‘maybe she isn’t on to me.’

“I know, I’m sorry” Daphne said, her fear melting away slowly.

Officer Lane looked at Daphne with guilt in her eyes. “It’s just confidential, I’ve already told you too much. Besides, we’re getting more information by the minute on suspects.”

Daphne’s eyebrows raised at that last statement. Suspects? Officer Lane realized she had said too much again.

“Dammit.” Lane said. Daphne remained frozen.

“Well, now I really can’t tell you anything,” She said, then paused. “But if you want, I can tell you about my arm.” Lane said, smiling.

“How about tomorrow? I’m pretty tired.” Daphne said flatly. She didn’t realize how rude it was until she saw the expression on Officer Lanes face. Disappointed and embarrassed.

“Alright. Sleep well.” Lane said abruptly, closing the door to her room.

 

Daphne waited for the signal from Vee to head out of her window for about a half an hour, then her phone buzzed. “Shaggy is waiting down the road from you. Go out the window and stay close to the trees. If you don’t tell me you’re at the car in 10 minutes we will call 911 and report you missing.”

Daphne appreciated that Vee was cautious for her safety, even though she was the one forcing her safety to be compromised in the first place. She just responded “Okay” then left her room.

She climbed down the tree with ease. It was a really easy way to sneak out, as it was basically a ladder from her room to the ground. The only obstacle was the slight jump at the bottom from the lowest branch to the ground.

Daphne made sure to be extra slow and quiet, so as to not attract attention. She figured there had to be police officers waiting outside somewhere. Daphne had made it to the last branch and was about to jump off of the tree. When she was reaching the ground, she noticed an officer walking right where she was about to land. She stopped herself and hung on to the branches she had leapt from moments ago. She mouthed obscenities as she thought about what to do. It took all the core strength in the world to keep her legs suspended above the officer’s oblivious head.

The policeman was only there for about 30 seconds before moving on. She was pretty sure his job was to circle the house and keep intruders from sneaking through the windows. If it was, he wasn’t very good at it.

Daphne waited until she was sure he was gone, then made the rather ungraceful leap to the ground. The branches swung back up and rustled lightly as Daphne cringed from the sound.

She tried to hurry away, avoiding patches of unmelted snow so as to not leave her footprints. She felt proud of how careful she was being.

She walked down the street and soon saw Shaggy, sitting in his car.

She walked up to him and wordlessly acknowledged him. He looked at her with a frown.

‘No, that’s not how this works. I’m the one whose mad, not you.’ She thought.

She reciprocated the look of distain.

She got in his car and put on her seatbelt. Shaggy stared at her for a moment. She wanted to say ‘what?’ but no way was she initiating the conversation.

“Shouldn’t you duck down while I pass your house?” He asked. She was hoping that if he had said anything on the car ride that she could just ignore it, but she didn’t want to risk being caught.

“Fine.” She said, begrudgingly, as if it wasn’t logical.

Shaggy turned on his car and began to drive. Daphne gathered her hair in her hands, so it didn’t puff up, and bent over in the passenger seat. She texted Vee that they were on their way.


	16. Chapter 16

Not so surprisingly, Daphne and Shaggy didn’t speak for the rest of the car ride. She kept looking at him out of the corner of her eye. He was different from how he was earlier that day. He seemed much more impatient and angry. Her gut reaction was to be upset. More upset.

She took a moment to consider why. Why was she angry? Was it fair to be more upset at someone for reacting negatively to their shitty attitude? Daphne was making her head hurt with hypotheticals.

‘Okay,’ She thought. ‘I’m mad at him, and now he’s mad at me for being mad, and then I get even more mad at him?’ She knew that it wasn’t warranted, but she was in too far to swallow her pride and apologize. And anyways, judging by his demeanor, it didn’t seem like he would be too receptive.

Shaggy pulled up to Vee’s block. They parked down the street and walked down the alleyway to be let in the back door. Vee greeted them silently.

Daphne noticed she was wearing pajama pants. She counted that as one of the handfuls of times she hadn’t seen Vee in her cheer uniform. It was strangely humanizing.

All three waited to speak until they reached the basement where Fred was writing in his notebook.

“Did everything go okay?” Vee asked, not so much conversationally, but as to move the evening along.

“Yes. Fine.” Daphne said, eyeing Shaggy.

Shaggy noticed this, then turned his back to her and struck up a conversation with Fred. “Is that evidence for the case or something?” Shaggy asked.

Fred paused. “Oh, no, I just like to record things.” He told him with a sheepish grin. “Especially exciting things like sneaking out.” He added.

Shaggy smiled and sat down next to Fred, making a big deal about enjoying the conversation. Almost as a ‘take that’ to Daphne.

“Well, I came up with a list of suspects,” Vee told Daphne, motioning for her to sit on the armchair opposite Fred and Shaggy. She did, turning her body profile to face Vee.

Vee grabbed a folder and filed through papers. After a few seconds of squinting, she put on a pair of glasses.

Normally, seeing Vee in glasses would have been surprising enough for her to exchange a look with Shaggy, but she resisted the inclination. Still, Vee Washington in glasses, interesting.

“Sorry if it’s a little unorganized, I had to write some notes in the margins.” Vee said, pulling a paper out of the file and flipping it to face Daphne.

Daphne grabbed the paper out of Vee’s hands and quickly surveyed the list.

In a mess of scratches and scribbles, a list of dozens of people was written in Vee’s small, sharp lettering.

“I was hoping the list would be shorter,” Daphne said, discouraged.

Vee grabbed the appear back from her hands and handed it to Fred to survey.

“You’re welcome,” Vee told Daphne.

Daphne did feel bad for not thanking Vee, but no way was she thanking her now that she had been all passive-aggressive.

“So how do we narrow down the list?” Fred asked, handing the paper to Shaggy.

“Well, we can begin more in-depth research on the people on the list,” Vee said. “it might be smart to keep an eye on the Malsam farm. Shaggy, you can drive over and keep watch.” Vee declared.

“Um… by myself?” Shaggy asked. Shaggy didn’t love the idea of being out in the dark all by himself.

The dissonance between Shaggy and Daphne had been obvious, but to poke fun, Vee said “You can go with Daphne if you want.”

“No. No that’s fine.” He said unconvincingly. “Alone it is.”

“I’ll go,” Fred said with a smile to Vee. Shaggy sighed lightly with relief.

“Fine by me. See you later boys.” Daphne said, getting up and going over to Vee’s computer.

“Come back by 4,” Vee said.

Shaggy stuck his head up in exasperation. “I need to stop staying up so late.” He complained.

Daphne waited until Fred and Shaggy were gone before she murmured “boo hoo, poor baby doesn’t get his beauty rest.” Vee stared at Daphne as the sour look on her face lingered.

 

Shaggy and Fred walked down the alleyway and got in the car. Almost immediately, Fred began to talk.

“That was weird back there. Why was that weird?”  
“Wow, you don’t really beat around the bush, do you?” Shaggy asked as he started up the car.

“Not really. And we only have until 4 to talk.” Fred told him.

Shaggy pulled out of the alleyway and began heading to the Malsam farm.

“Well, if you had been listening instead of writing in your notebook at lunch, you would have heard the full story.” Shaggy told him, chiding yet lighthearted.

“I’m sorry,” Fred said, embarrassed.

“It’s okay,” Shaggy said, honestly.

“Sometimes I just get the urge to write what I’m doing so bad that I can’t focus on anything else. I know that sometimes I miss things.” He said. “But I would like to hear now.” Fred said, looking at Shaggy expectantly.

Shaggy paused as he formulated his thoughts.

“Well… I know she’s under a lot of stress, but she has been strangely rude to me and I don’t know why. I mean, ever since we went to Georgia’s she has been shutting me out.” Shaggy paused, and Fred took this as an opportunity to speak.

“I’m sorry” he said.

“It’s fine. It’s just frustrating because I don’t know what I did.” Shaggy said.

Fred looked over at Shaggy. He looked pathetic. He could see in Shaggy’s eyes how much it hurt to not have her there for him.

Fred quickly texted Vee. “Can you get Daphne to tell you why she’s mad at Shaggy?” he asked.

Vee responded right away. “Will do. I’ll report back.”

Fred put his phone away.

The two continued the car ride in silence.


	17. Chapter 17

The boys had good enough sense to park further back on the road leading to the Malsam Farm. They were walking up to the barn after managing to hide the van in the brush just off the road. The air was so cold that the breath they were exhaling simmered into the air like smoke.

“I think its sexist that Vee made _us_ do this,” Fred whispered to Shaggy, half as a joke, half out of fear of freezing solid.

“Well, it makes sense when you consider how vulnerable the girls could be out here.” Shaggy said. “I mean, whoever stole that pig could be doing… other bad stuff.” Shaggy said.

“Are you kidding? Both of them have at least 30 pounds of muscle on me. They could kick some ass.”

Shaggy laughed. “Well, then they’re using the ‘girls are weak’ stereotype to their advantage.” He replied. After a moment, he felt a pang of guilt, knowing that if either of the girls heard him say that, he would have gotten disapproving looks and maybe even an unplayful punch to the arm. He corrected himself.

“Daphne is a liability. She shouldn’t even be at Vee’s house, let alone out here in the dark.”

“Don’t they know she can defend herself?” Fred asked, referring to the police and her parents.

“I don’t think so,” Shaggy responded honestly. “I mean, she doesn’t see her parents too much, so they don’t really know what she looks like sometimes… and she hides her muscles in those baggy clothes, too,” He said as Fred nodded.

It was true that Daphne was irrefutably buff. She had a very broad build, and her biceps were defined, even when at rest. She used her families’ home gym, and Shaggy knew for a fact that she was able to max out all of the weight machines, at least with a warm up first. And it wasn’t just Daphne; Vee was built like a natural athlete. She was short, but her whole body was strong. Her quads and calves were huge, after two years of tumbles and lifts, and her arms, while smaller, were hardened with muscle. Meanwhile Fred was very scrawny, and not all that tall either. He still looked about the same as he did in middle school. He kept hoping against all hopes that he would eventually look like he had hit puberty. Shaggy had a rather large build but was anything but muscular. Where his abdominals were supposed to belong rested a layer of pudge. What Daphne had in muscle, Shaggy had in fat. Not to say that Shaggy was unhealthy, but he definitely wasn’t in shape, and neither was Fred. Both of the girls, if they wanted to, could completely demolish the two boys, and both of the boys knew that.

The boys had reached the edge of the Malsam property and stood close to the barn they had been surveying a few days ago. They made sure to stand of the side that would block them from the house.

Shaggy looked through the crack in the barn doors and saw no movement. It was dark, but the dim lights on the walls were enough to reassure him that they didn’t have any company. At least, not any _human_ company.

“Well, we can just wait here for a while, then.” Shaggy murmured. Fred nodded back silently.

A few minutes had passed of Shaggy glancing around at their surroundings, and Fred writing notes into his phone

“what are you writing?” Shaggy asked. It usually wasn’t like him to initiate conversation, but Fred was personable enough, and their situation was awkward enough to warrant some inquisition on his part.

“Oh, just some notes so I can write in my journal later.” Fred said.

‘One track mind.’ Shaggy thought to himself. He almost understood how Fred had gained such a hefty reputation at school. A large portion of the students found him unbearably annoying, reasonably so, while the small remainder of minorities stomached him out of self-righteous sympathy. A sort of ‘look at how amazing I am, talking to the autistic kid’ kind of thing. Shaggy always thought it was a load of bullshit. He had never discussed it with Fred, but he had a feeling that Fred hated it, too.

Shaggy had a feeling that lots of people underestimated Fred’s awareness.

“Fred, how do you like Daphne?” Shaggy asked, wanting to see which side of the binary Daphne fell on. His voice was a bit patronizing, but not enough for Fred to be offended.

“I think she’s nice.” Fred said, looking up from his phone. A moment of silence passed when Fred realized that Shaggy wanted more of an answer than that. “I mean… she’s kind of blunt a lot of the time, but that’s mostly because we only talk in first period and she’s always tired then.” Another pause. “I like looking at her hair.” Fred added, with the cadence of a question. It was clear that he had nothing more to say.

Shaggy was pleased that Daphne didn’t appear to treat Fred any different than anyone else. He trusted Fred to tell him the truth, but he was worried that, because of their friendship, Fred may have smoothed over some rough edges in his image of Daphne. He didn’t want to further the conversation in that direction, as the question seemed to have blindsided Fred, so he just said “Cool. Just curious.”

Fred returned to his phone for a few minutes when a text popped up from Vee. “Daphne is jealous of Shaggy for quote un quote ‘flirting’ with Georgia the other day. She is aware that she’s being ridiculous. Working on getting her to apologize.” Fred read the text with a small smile, hoping that by tomorrow, Shaggy and Daphne would be friends again, and that Shaggy wouldn’t feel so unnaturally inclined to hang out with him and Vee.

It wasn’t that Fred disliked Shaggy, it was just that when he walked in the room without Daphne, you could see on his face that he felt sort of emotionally naked. He didn’t have anyone to default to when he got uncomfortable, and even Fred could tell it was beginning to weigh on Shaggy.

 

 

The rest of the evening consisted of scattered conversation outside of the cold barn as the girls searched through their list of people. The boys, luckily, did not see any foul play occurring, and left the Malsam farm at 3:30 in the morning. The sky was just beginning to lighten in preparation for the day ahead.

Shaggy parked in the alleyway. He didn’t bother sneaking into Vee’s house only to sneak out again. Fred stared at the text he had received from Vee hours ago. He wondered if Daphne would actually apologize. He also wondered if Shaggy would accept it. Daphne’s anger was totally unjustified, as well as offensive and hurtful to Shaggy, to the point where Fred would understand if Shaggy didn’t accept the apology. He also knew that Shaggy needed her. Fred didn’t know how he wanted it to play out.

“I’ll go get Daphne,” Fred told him. Shaggy wordlessly nodded in understanding. “And uh, Shaggy?” Fred asked as he was leaving the car.

“Yeah?” Shaggy asked.

“Well… if Daphne were to apologize… would you forgive her?”

Shaggy smiled, as if it were obvious. “Of course I would,” He told him.

Fred matched Shaggy’s kind smile. A moment of silence passed. “I’m sorry that she’s being a… I’m sorry she’s being mean” Fred told him.

“It’s okay. We all have our bad days.” Shaggy said. He wanted to kick himself for saying such a stupid cliché. ‘We all have those days when our sister is kidnapped and held hostage’ he sarcastically corrected himself.

Fred stepped out of the car. “She’s lucky to have you.” Fred said just before closing the door.

As much of a cliché as it was, Shaggy thought to himself ‘I’m lucky to have her.’


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it took me this long to update! It has been a crazy month, and I'm excited to finally post my latest chapter! Let me know what you think, and if you like it, PLEASE share it online!

Daphne mentally prepared herself for getting in the car with Shaggy. She knew she was probably going to apologize. She knew she had to, but she was also worried about the way he would respond. Something about the deadpanned looks he gave her on the way over shook her in an indescribable way.

That day at lunch he was smiling through her fastidious fussing, but in the car he just seemed hardened. She didn’t like it.

Which meant she would have to apologize.

Daphne never really liked apologizing. She remembered her nanny forcing her to after she accidentally punched her sister Debbie in the face while roughhousing. ‘I didn’t mean to, so why should I say I’m sorry? It’s not like it will make her black eye go away.’ She thought. Apparently her facetiousness was part of her from the beginning.

She still did, though. Sarcastic and insincere. Debbie, being the way that she is, accepted it, much to the dismay of their nanny who wanted to make Daphne an example.

Daphne thought about all of this as Vee read a text from her phone saying that Shaggy and Fred had arrived.

Daphne packed up. She put all of the files away and pretended to straighten up a pillow that was already perfectly placed on the couch. She was awkward in stranger’s houses.

Vee read it as a sign of discomfort around poor people. She pretended to not mind, but her Id would keep it in her subconscious.

“Thank you,” Daphne said. Vee smiled emotionlessly. Daphne wondered how that were possible, but she continued. “I’m sorry for… um, yeah, bye.”

Vee looked back at the computer with a grin on her face. ‘her apology is going to go terribly’ she thought.

Fred and Daphne awkwardly met on the stairs from the basement. They wordlessly walked back outside together to the van. Fred gestured out towards the van or Daphne then went to the porch next door. Daphne was momentarily confused, and then remembered that it was his house. She looked back at Fred unlocking his back door to delay the inevitable.

Daphne opened the car door and got in. She looked at Shaggy and smiled in the way a person would to a stranger. It was foreign and meaningless. He reciprocated.

Shaggy drove through the alleyway, his dim lights illuminating the dusty garages with bikes and crates propped against them.

“This is really how the other half lives.” Daphne murmured as she looked out the window. She was surprised that the first thing out of her mouth during the car ride was a joke. She heard Shaggy exhale, knowing he was smiling.

Hearing his weak laugh had been enough to fuel her apology. She turned to look at him. His smile was gone, and he was looking at the road.

“I’m sorry,” she said. It was simple. She had planned to use more explanation or give a speech leading up to it, but there it was.

Shaggy absorbed the apology. He calculated what he should say next.

“For what?” he asked. A timeless response to gauge the other’s awareness.

“For being a dick,” Daphne responded, a tickling feeling in her stomach.

A few moments passed. Daphne looked at Shaggy as he drove. She didn’t know if the conversation was over, if he was thinking, or giving her the silent treatment. She just darted her eyes around his unresponsive face.

Shaggy took a slight detour when they were getting close to their block. Since Daphne couldn’t drive, she wasn’t about to point out that he had turned the wrong way. She had figured he had some sort of reasoning. She realized after a few turns that he was heading to Marcus’s, their usual burger spot.

She had waited until she was sure that’s where he was going to say anything. He pulled into the parking lot of the closed restaurant.

“What, you suddenly have a hankering for a burg-”

“You know you can’t treat me like that, Daph.” Shaggy interrupted.

Daphne looked back at him, wide eyed. He continued.

“Interrupting me, making fun of me, not telling me what the fuck I did. You can’t do that. It’s just disrespectful.” He said. His voice was quiet, but he was angry.

Daphne felt a heaviness in her stomach again. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“What did I even do that made you so pissed at me?” Shaggy asked. He was staring right at her. She didn’t like when he did that.

Daphne sighed. She refused to make eye contact and opted to stare at the windshield instead.

“I fully understand that this is unwarranted, which is why I wanted to apologize. Just… please listen until the end.” Daphne asked.

Shaggy stared at her intensely, hoping for a good explanation. “Fine, I’m all ears.”

“When we were at the Malsam’s you were talking to Georgia and… I had never seen you act like that. You were flirting and smiling, and I just freaked out.”

Shaggy inhaled, beginning to speak.

“Hold on, you said you would listen.” Daphne responded. Shaggy closed his mouth. “I have never had a friend as close as you before, and especially right now, I think that I’m worried about people that I love leaving me. For some reason, my plan was to push you away. Maybe so that I could make it my decision instead of waiting to be abandoned… But anyways, I know that it’s stupid, and I know I was horrible to you, but right now more than ever I need you.” Daphne said.

Shaggy took a long moment to process what she said. Daphne did, too. Daphne didn’t quite understand why she pushed him away until she had to verbally justify it. She felt smart. If only she could have recognized it before it got so bad.

“First of all, I forgive you.” Shaggy responded, snapping her back into reality. Daphne smiled with relief. “Second, I don’t like Georgia, he was just being nice.” Daphne had her doubts about that, but she mostly trusted that he didn’t like her. “and third, I won’t ever leave, unless you get this way next time you feel threatened.”  Shaggy said seriously. His wording made it sound like Daphne was a wild animal. She felt like he used the same tone when training his dog.

Despite her visceral dislike of that comparison, she accepted his relatively generous deal. She turned to meet his gaze, it was intense but ambiguous. His expression softened when he saw the tears in her eyes.

Instinctively, he went in to hug her. Even though she wasn’t a huge fan of physical contact, she missed him, and returned the embrace.

They didn’t talk. They enjoyed the tensionless silence. They were just two friends enjoying each other’s proximity as the sky brightened in preparation for sunrise.

 


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I am so so SO sorry for making you wait so long for this chapter! A lot of life has happened since my last update, but I will try to be more consistent now that the summer is over. I hope you enjoy this new chapter, and please don't hesitate to comment giving my suggestions, asking questions, or telling me what you liked about what you've read! Thank you for being patient! I hope that you enjoy!

Daphne woke up to the sound of the car speeding along the pavement. When she opened her eyes, she was blinded by the morning light.

“Wh-what happ-”

“We fell asleep” Shaggy said.

Daphne’s heart dropped. She checked her phone. It was 6 am. School started in a little over an hour, she knew everyone in her house was awake and waiting for her. Then she noticed the 7 missed calls.

“Fuck.”

She waited impatiently as Shaggy drove her home. Marcus’s was only a five-minute drive from their block, but it felt like they were moving in slow motion. Shaggy pulled up behind her house and Daphne practically jumped out of the car. She didn’t have time to look back or say goodbye, she just ran to the tree and climbed up.

Daphne was in her head. She was shaking and panting so much that climbing up the tree felt like a blur. She got in her room to hear several people banging on her door. Another call from her mother came in on her phone.

“um, just a sec!” Daphne said, furiously changing into pajamas and messing up her hair. She was shaking as she struggled into her sippers and unlocked her door.

Officer Lane came barging in, with her mother standing behind her, demure yet concerned.

“Oh, thank god. What took you so long to wake up, you didn’t hear us…” Lane trailed off. Her eyes wandered to the open window and the curtain billowing against the morning wind.

She looked at Daphne’s hands, which were raw with a thin layer of dirt and bark from climbing up the tree. It was obvious that she knew. Daphne stared at her wide-eyed, wordlessly pleading to keep quiet.

“Darling, you need to come with us,” Daphne’s mother interjected. She sounded much more straightforward than Daphne was used to. Normally, she would have swooped her Daughter into a dramatic hug and cooed over her, saying how concerned she was in a sing song kind of lilt. The fact that she was even waiting outside Daphne’s door to begin with meant that something was very wrong.

Her mother took her hand while Lane rested hers against Daphne’s upper back, as if to stabilize something that was in danger of toppling. Daphne’s heart was still pounding from the close call, it took her longer than normal to realize how strange everyone was acting.

Daphne almost asked what was going on, but it seemed like the last thing her mother or Officer Lane wanted to do was talk.

They walked silently downstairs and met a somber looking man in a suit at their dining room table.

Daphne saw her mother’s hand on her mouth, her eyes low and half closed.

“Mom, what-“

“your sister has been kidnapped.” The man in the suit said.

Daphne paused and sat down across from him. “yeah, I know,” She said.

“No,” he said, “your oldest sister, Delilah.

Daphne’s stomach lurched as she heard a weak yelp of sadness from her mother.

“Delilah?” Daphne found herself saying in a confused whisper.

“I am going to be conducting the case from now on. We will have to go over some details before you can go to school.” The man told her.

The man in the suit kept talking, but Daphne’s eyes were staring passed him in a simultaneously dazed and urgent stupor. _Delilah? How could they take Delilah?_

“Daphne,” Her mother said, bringing her view back into focus. The man in the suit was staring at her expectantly. They talked for about an hour about Delilah and Dawn; their backgrounds, Daphne’s relationship with them, whether they had any enemies. Daphne also had to tell them if she noticed anyone suspicious within the past two weeks. Daphne was racking her brain for something useful, but could think of nothing.

 _If I could get my hands on our list of suspects, that could point them in some direction,_ she thought, _but I would need to act like I knew them from somewhere,_ she continued.

Daphne left the table once the man, who she later heard referred to as detective Ruiz, said she could go. She glanced at the time on her phone and saw that school had started already. Officer Lane wordlessly led her to the police car and drove her to school.

Once Daphne had had a moment to get her mind off the mystery, the reality of her sister’s kidnapping bored into her chest like a weight had been thrown into it. She unfocused her eyes out the window as the dead trees cycled through view.

Daphne felt like her protection was gone. The first kidnapping was a tragedy, but this time, they were prepared, and it still made no difference. Dawn was taken with no warning, and she had a high-status job. Even though she was in danger, the Blakes still mustered up some false hope that they were prepared for the next attack. But even after all of the precautions and protections that Delilah had, they still managed to take her. This was a pattern, and Delilah was chosen as the next victim specifically to make a statement.

 Daphne knew for a fact that, other than herself, Delilah was the family member to put up the biggest fight. She was a former Marine, she was trained for ambush. She was strong and quick thinking, and she was still taken. If they could get her, they could get anyone.

Daphne checked her phone, a text from Shaggy popped up. “did you get inside okay? Where are you?”  
            Daphne thought back to an hour before when her biggest worry was being caught sneaking out. Now she was afraid for her life.

 


	20. Chapter 20

Daphne’s classes were a blur. She passed through the halls with her eyes looking to her feet, avoiding having to receive any stares from well-meaning but redundantly annoying classmates.

Daphne assumed that Officer Lane had told Shaggy about the abduction, and that he was leaving her alone out of respect and common sense.

Daphne’s first thought was to be upset that Officer Lane was telling her friends personal information about the family, but she also knew that if Shaggy hadn’t’ve known and came to bother her, she would be in a worse mood than she was now.

The policeman at her breakfast table said that the abduction wasn’t going to be made public until Delilah was missing for 48 hours, so no one apart from the Blakes and Shaggy would know. And Fred and Vee, she assumed.

The lunch bell rang and Daphne zoomed out, quickly followed by Officer Lane bumping into students that had walked into the gap between her and the speeding orange hair with the backpack.

Daphne knew Officer Lane was supposed to be with her at all times, but she hoped to God that she might bend the rules just this once to save Daphne’s dignity to quietly cry in the handicap stall.

She waited outside the bathroom door for Lane to catch up from down the hallway. She had expected a witty remark between gasps of breath, but neither Lane nor Daphne had the energy to be lighthearted. Not today.

“So, can I please go into the bathroom alone for twenty minutes to totally not cry?” Daphne said, mustering up her best straight face while the tears welling in her eyes betrayed her.

“No,” Officer Lane said tersely, her face stern.

Daphne was so taken aback that her sadness was overrun with confusion and hurt, which usually resulted an unjustified anger. “What?” She asked simply, her brow furrowing.

“I said no, you need to stay with me at all times, _Miss_ Blake.”

The cold and distancing surname shot through Daphne’s chest like ice. Her skin prickled at the sudden hostility.

For once in her life, Daphne greeted anger with kindness rather than more anger. “What is going on?” She asked, her tone softening ever so slightly.

Lane showed a shadow of remorse, clearly surprised that Daphne wasn’t escalating the situation. She searched for a moment, then began. “You know that it is my job to protect you, and that it’s on me if anything happened to you, so you can imagine how stressed out and pissed I would be when you intentionally put yourself in harm’s way,” Lane said, her energetic whisper growing more hostile by the word. “Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to sneak out when your _family_ is being kidnapped and held hostage?!” Officer Lane said, wagging her finger threateningly at Daphne.

Daphne was unfamiliar with the sensation of an adult being disappointed in her. She looked down sheepishly at the floor.

“And for what?” Lane continued, “sneaking out to meet a boy?”

“No, it’s not-”

“I don’t care what it is. I care that you are safe and that you keep yourself safe, got it?” Lane said, her voice an unusual mixture of anger and compassion.

Daphne lifted her eyes from the floor to look at Officer Lane. She just noticed the bags under her eyes. The flyaways in her greasy, unwashed hair. The fingernails bitten off in anxious fits. The fear in Lane’s eyes that was reflected in her own.

“Okay,” Daphne said. “I’m sorry, and it won’t happen again.”

Lane held her stern gaze for a moment longer before lowering her finger and opening the door of the bathroom.

“I’m sorry. I know this is really difficult and scary. I want to be here for you, but I need you to trust me,” Lane said, still looking at Daphne.

“I know, I’m sorry, too,” Daphne said, wiping a tear from her cheek as she walked into the bathroom.

“I’ll give you twenty minutes of privacy, then you can come out here, we can have lunch, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Daphne paused and looked back at Lane, a sheepish look on her flushed face.

Daphne nodded silently as she closed the door and wiped another tear.

 

After about ten minutes of sobbing and wailing, Daphne decided she had gotten most of the initial shock, fear, and shame out of her system. She wiped her puffy eyes and red nose as she pulled out her phone to text Vee.

She noticed she had already received three texts, each from a different member of their newfound group of friends. _Not friends, necessarily,_ Daphne thought _more like a mystery gang._

Each of the messages were compassionate and kind, all in the own signature style of each person. Shaggy’s was kind and personal, much as he usually is with Daphne. Vee’s was a bit awkward and mechanical, but equally well-meaning. Fred’s was strange and effusive in a way that made Daphne laugh out loud. She sensed the tension in her chest lifting as she read the messages.

Daphne texted all three back, thanking them for the support. She then told Vee she couldn’t sneak out anymore.

“That sucks. I’m sorry. We’ll keep researching at night if you want.” Vee replied.

“IDK if you’ll need to,” Daphne replied. “Lane is about to tell me everything.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Whew, third day in a row I've posted a chapter. Hopefully that can make up for the unexpected hiatus :) Also, if you could please spread the word about this story, I would be so happy! I'm on Tumblr as @beenispachina, if you would like to follow me, tag me in your posts, message me, ask me a question, etc. As always, please leave feedback if you feel so inclined, and enjoy!

Daphne splashed her face with some water and looked in the grimy bathroom mirror and grimaced. She looked like hell. The stress of everything had finally taken a noticeable toll on her outward appearance. Like Lane, her eyes were sunken and dark, and her skin was pale against her freckles. Even her hair didn’t have its usual cotton candy like tangle, and rather looked deflated and weighed down. She felt like she looked limp and lethargic.

Maybe she just needed a shower.

She walked out of the bathroom and met the glance of Officer Lane, standing against the wall, both wearing awkward and polite smiles.

“Okay,” Lane said as they approached their now usual spot on the bench outside the front entrance, “for your sake, I will have this small lapse in judgement where I will give you information on the case.”

Daphne was giddy with excitement. For once, she was jittery and fidgety for good, and not bad. The first question tumbled out of her mouth.

“Who are the suspects?” 

Lane looked away for a moment, processing the question and conjuring the list from the back of her head.

“Well, there is a street tag gang that is giving us some trouble, we still haven’t located the leader but we have a couple members in custody, so its only a matter of time,” Lane responded. Daphne’s excitement fell. She didn’t think a bunch of delinquent kids could be capable of something like this. Maybe the police knew less than she thought.

“And we also considered some people who work with the Mayor, but after last night’s events, its unlikely that a person working in City Hall would have access to the police station or the ability to sneak into Delilah’s apartment.”

“They took her from her apartment?” Daphne asked. For some reason, the thought of her fighting in her pajamas in her own home felt so much more intrusive and wrong. Maybe if she had had her uniform, her gun, maybe…

But Daphne kept listening to Lane’s juicy information. She continued, “So now we are mainly looking into the people that are close to you and your family. Any employees with criminal records, and we are scanning the internet to see if there are any groups or posts online about your family’s ‘power’ and seeing if its traceable to anyone local.”

“Do you have any leads on who they’re going to try to get next?” Daphne asked.

Lane fidgeted uncomfortably. She felt awkward discussing the family of this kid as though they were pawns in a particularly strategic game of chess.

“We think you and your youngest sister, Daisy, are safe,” Lane said. Daphne felt a wave of relief. “Their M.O. is on taking away your power. The Mayor, the chief of police. Debbie is somewhat of a celebrity chef, but she lives in the City, so we don’t think they will get to her there without leaving a trail, but she is still being watched. Your mother, no offense, doesn’t hold enough power or social status for the public to consider her the threat, so she is out, which just leaves your father.”

Daphne considered this for a moment, the rankings of her family members circling around her head. “Wouldn’t they want to work up to him?” She asked.

Lane looked taken aback by the question, Daphne knew Lane didn’t expect this kind of strategic thinking from her, much less when talking about her own family.

“That’s why we’re watching all of you.” Lane told her, a wide-eyed and intense gaze boring through Daphne’s face contorting with thought.

“We are setting up a plan to catch them, or at least get a lead,” Lane said after a short silence.

“What is it?” Daphne asked, almost excited at the thought. “Can I help?” 

“Well, sort of. We talked to your mother and she says she will not miss the annual MET Gala donators ball, so we figured we would set up a plan to catch them there. 

“You think they’ll come for us there?” Daphne asked, doubtfully.

Lane reached in her day bag and pulled out several folded sheets of printer paper. On it were black and white scans of letters. Daphne recognized one as the first letter she had seen after they took the police file when investigating Dawn’s office.

“There have been hints to taking you down at an important time, possibly to humiliate your further. They want a public event to allow people to see them in action. They’ve been leaving notes around town, trying to get the public on their side. Police have been taking them down as soon as they’re posted, but they’re never put in the same place twice. Look at this one, ‘we must show the Blakes what we are capable of’” she read from a note comprised of magazine clippings. “’the higher the pedestal the harder the fall. Let’s make them fall far,’ ‘the spotlight is where it will happen, look out, Montybags.’”

Daphne pulled the papers from Lane’s hand. She scanned them all with morbid curiosity and fear. Without thinking, she ran from the bench with the papers crumpled in her hands, not letting them escape for the life of her.

“Daphne! Daphne Blake you get back here!” Lane yelled, calling after the sprinting blur of orange.

“I’ll just be a minute,” she sang out calmly as she ran into the school.

She knew she had to reach the chemistry lab. She only needed a minute.

She darted into the doorway, Vee, Fred, and Shaggy all standing from their seats at her arrival.

“Take pictures. Quick. On your phone,” Daphne panted as she threw the papers on the table and closed the door as Lane approached.

Shaggy and Fred froze in confusion, while Vee took Shaggy’s phone and her own and took pictures with both hands. After about ten seconds of Officer Lane pounding on the door. Vee had taken pictures of all of the notes and put them back into a pile as though nothing had happened.

Daphne opened the door and a red-faced Officer Lane tumbled in the door.

“What the hell was that?” She asked.

“Sorry, I thought I recognized something in the notes, but I was wrong,” Daphne lied lamely, but an exhausted Officer Lane took it as good enough and snatched the papers up. 

“You’re lucky I’m on the job” Lane said in a low and threatening voice.

“Yeah she is, or she might be kidnapped!” Fred joked loudly. Daphne’s face flushed. The room was thick with tension as Fred’s self-satisfied laugh filled the silence.


	22. Chapter 22

Daphne sat in her room and waited impatiently for 5 o’ clock. She had convinced Officer Lane to let her go over to Shaggy’s house for a couple of hours, provided that Lane took her there and brought her back personally. Of course, Lane had no idea that it was to review the information she had illegally given Daphne earlier that day.

Vee and Fred were on their way in Vee’s mom’s car. Daphne was not looking forward to letting them see how she and Shaggy lived. She didn’t necessarily have many friends to begin with, due to her introversion and poor social skills, and combined with her intense dislike of bringing people over, it resulted in Shaggy being the only viable friend option left, by process of elimination. No one else on their street had kids that went to public school.

5 o’ clock came, and Officer Lane drove Daphne the few hundred feet to Shaggy’s house. Daphne and Lane walked into the entryway and were greeted with pale marble as far as the eye could see. The room should have been cold, but the heater had made the entire house toasty, a fire blazing in the living room to push that point even more forward. The furniture was all a very cohesive and clean makeup of gold, glass, and white leather. Daphne had been here plenty of times; she wasn’t surprised by the grandeur. She could predict exactly the expression on Fred and Vee’s faces as they walked into the foyer. A mixture of enthrallment, confusion, and loathing, just like how Lane looked when she must’ve entered the Blake’s home for the first time, and just like she looked now.

Shaggy walked down the extremely imposing staircase and stuck out like a rotting tooth against the gleaming perfection of the interior around him. He wore his dusty green coat and old jeans, just like always, almost to purposefully juxtapose his posh upbringing. Daphne could hardly blame him.

Daphne and officer Lane stood awkwardly between the foot of the stairs and the French front doors as Shaggy slowly closed the gap.

“Hey..” he said awkwardly.

“Hi,” Daphne responded, Lane nodded her head in greeting.

After a moment of unbearable silence, Shaggy motioned for them to join him upstairs. Daphne began to take off her sneakers, and Officer Lane followed, struggling with her balance as she took her shoes off with her one hand.

Shaggy led them up the center staircase to the “recreation room” as his mother called it. When Shaggy was younger, it was the room for all of his toys and art. There was a remote-control car racetrack and a giant easel for painting. Now that he was older, it mostly had computers and gaming systems. Shaggy knew it was egregious, but his mother was an intense gift giver, and took great pride in making her assistants wait in line for the newest videogame for her son. Shaggy didn’t even really like videogames.

“Well, here we are,” Shaggy said as they reached the threshold.

Officer Lane craned her neck to see as much of the room as she could before clearing her throat and leaving.

“Well, I’ll be back for you at 7, if anything happens, just call.”

“I will, thanks,” Daphne said flatly.

Lane turned and descended the staircase, happily letting the uncomfortable interaction end.

Daphne immediately walked into the room and flopped herself onto the plush rug. Shaggy closed the door and laid on his back next to Daphne.

“You doing okay?” Shaggy asked.

“Yeah,” Daphne responded. “I guess the constant attention is getting a little old. Being around all these people is so draining.”

“I’m sorry,” Shaggy said after a pause. It was all he could think to say. “do you want to just go home and get some alone time?” Shaggy asked.

“No, no, I actually like spending time with you guys,” Daphne countered quickly with a smile. “I just wish that everyone around me didn’t feel like they needed to fill the silence with something.”

“We can just sit in silence if you want,” Shaggy told her, looking up to where she was laying.

She smiled. “Okay.”

Daphne laid her head back and stared up at the electric blue ceiling. She remembered when the room was getting repainted and Shaggy’s mom told them to pick a color scheme.

They decided to go with the most annoying color palette they could. Neon green walls with a bright purple accent, and an electric blue ceiling to top it all off. Ms. Rogers wasn’t as upset as they expected, and actually went along with it. They looked back on the annoying colors as a silly memory.

She remembered that the day the paint was drying, they had snuck into the room to see their handiwork. While they were there, they found leftover paint, and decided it must not go to waste. In the corner closet where they now kept all the art supplies and electronic accessories, Shaggy and Daphne put electric blue handprints on the wall. Underneath the handprints, they wrote their names, and 8th grade underneath it.

Daphne’s smile widened when she remembered this. She looked over at Shaggy who had his eyes closed, but she knew he wasn’t sleeping.

Just then, Daphne felt Shaggy’s hand slip into her own.

She looked down, and there they were, fingers interlocking and Shaggy’s thumb moving back and forth across her own.

Ordinarily, Daphne would have yanked her hand away and recoiled at his apologies, but she just laid her head back down.

“Remember when we picked these colors?” Shaggy asked, looking at the ceiling.

“I was just thinking about that,” Daphne smiled.

I still think it would have been funnier if we chose pink,” He said, turning his head to face hers.

She turned her head too. “I’m happy with how it turned out,” she said.

Just like that, Daphne started to cry. She had been crying an awful lot lately, but she had not yet felt weak enough to cry in front of another person. She had always figured it was unfair to put her burden on someone else.

But just as quickly as she let out her first whimper, she felt Shaggy’s arm wrap around her and gently press her head into his chest. They didn’t need words, he just let her cry. If there was one thing he knew about Daphne, it was that she didn’t like her emotions acknowledged and discussed. Normally, he would jump at the opportunity to help her severely under-formed emotional coping skills grow a bit more, but these were not normal circumstances.


End file.
